After two years of adjustments, cutting public spending and transforming the economy (from an interventionist framework to a more liberal one), Argentina seems to be slowly finding a path towards greater prosperity that is not without its bumps, as has been seen this year. Although GDP and activity indicators have suffered great volatility in recent months, the outlook for poverty seems clear. Not only does Indec (the Argentine INE) continue to see the decline in this indicator, Unicef has published a complete and new report this November on Argentina, in which it admits the plummet of poverty in the country governed by Javier Milei, a decline that has also occurred in all the dimensions studied by the report.
According to the Unicef report, 31% of households with children and adolescents in Argentina have monthly income that is not enough to cover their current expenses. This figure represents a drop of 17 percentage points compared to the previous study: “This percentage reflects, however, a recovery compared to last year, when the figure reached 48%according to a new survey by UNICEF Argentina. The relief in income is especially recorded in the most vulnerable sectors,” the report highlights.
The analysis also reveals an improvement in the ability of families to cover expenses related to childhood, such as supplies, clothing and outings. There is also an improvement in access to basic services. The document states that The proportion of households that cannot go to the doctor or dentist due to lack of resources fell 8 pointswhile food consumption shows a recovery, with a reduction from 52% to 30% of households that must restrict meals due to lack of money.
Collapse of child poverty
These advances occur in a context in which child poverty reaches 46.1% of boys and girls, despite having been reduced by 21 percentage points. in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period of the previous year. Meanwhile, extreme poverty reaches 10.2% (EPH-INDEC), falling 17 points, according to the most recent official data.
“The Rapid Survey of households with children and adolescents, which UNICEF has carried out since 2020, constitutes a key tool to understand the evolution of the living conditions of children and adolescents in the country,” says the UNICEF Representative in Argentina, Rafael Ramírez Mesec. Furthermore, this expert admits that the results of this new large survey reveal the progress made in reducing poverty, but also the challenges that must be addressed with priority on the public agenda to consolidate and accelerate this trend.
Disinflation to reduce poverty
Furthermore, the report admits that the key to this notable improvement in poverty is a product of the strong disinflationary process that the Argentine economy is experiencing, which in two years has gone from presenting a monthly inflation of more than 20% (very close to the risk of hyperinflation) to a monthly CPI of 2% (on average) in recent months. The curious thing is that the policies applied to reduce inflation (austerity and large cuts in key items) should have initially caused an increase in poverty (short pain long gain), but when they were applied with other key policies to cushion the blow, the result has been surprisingly good.
“These data reflect the impact that had the inflationary slowdown along with the prioritization of income protection policies for lower-income households, through the Universal Child Allowance and the Food Benefit. The challenge, in a framework of fiscal consolidation, lies in sustaining these efforts,” explained UNICEF Social Inclusion and Monitoring Specialist in Argentina, Sebastián Waisgrais.
In this sense, according to the study, inequalities and new alerts still persist. The report, despite admitting the improvement in child poverty and general poverty, believes that attention must be paid to the incipient indebtedness of some households. On the other hand, although the situation has improved, Argentina continues to present poverty rates that are high compared to advanced countries.
