LatinNews Daily - 16 January 2024

*Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released its latest figures on the cost of a basic food basket, which was up 30.1% in December 2023 as compared to the previous month and has increased 258.2% year-on-year. This is above the rate of inflation, which stood at 211.4% in yearly terms in December. According to Indec, the cost of the total basic basket, which includes non-food items and services, increased 27.0% in monthly terms and 225.1% year-on-year. The value of the basic food basket is used to determine the extreme poverty line in Argentina, whereas the price of the total basic basket is used to determine the poverty line. According to Indec, Argentina’s poverty rate rose to 40.1% of the population in the first half of 2023, up from 39.2% in the second half of 2022.  Extreme poverty also increased over the same period to affect 9.3% of the population, up from 8.1%.