Poverty in Argentina decreased in 2025 to its lowest level since 2018, but experts are skeptical how much long-term change will occur.

Argentina has battled poverty for decades, reaching its peak at a rate of 52.9% in the first half of 2024, according to INDEC, the government’s statistics agency. Poverty in Argentina has forced many households to go into debt to cover necessities, with more than 75% of households going into debt to buy food, 60% to afford utilities such as electricity, gas and water, and 45% for medication and healthcare, according to the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.

Since 2024, under President Javier Milei, who was inaugurated in December 2023, Argentina’s poverty levels fell to 28.2% in the second half of 2025, the lowest it’s been since the first half of 2018, according INDEC. Child poverty fell to 42.3% in the same period, also the lowest levels since 2018, according to UNICEF Argentina. Here is more information about poverty reduction in Argentina.

Behind the Decrease

Recent poverty reduction in Argentina is mainly due to policies implemented by the administration to decelerate inflation significantly, according to representatives from ACDI, a nonprofit organization fighting poverty in Argentina. However, they say these policies haven’t benefited everyone.

“The tools used to get inflation down […] have created winners and losers,” said Mauricio Moresco, the nature investment director, and Luciana Palacio, the education investment director of ACDI, in an email interview with The Borgen Project. “Export-oriented sectors have grown, sectors tied to domestic consumption have struggled, and part of the labor market has shifted toward more informal [non-contract] work.”

A Bloomberg article from March similarly said that though oil and gas, mining and finance grew since Milei’s policies were put in place, industries such as manufacturing and construction did poorly.

ACDI has fought poverty in Argentina by supporting education and preserving nature. It strengthens educational institutions to help develop young people’s “cognitive, socioemotional, digital and civic skills,” and protect nature because it has a large effect on poverty, which leads to more environmental deterioration, according to the two directors. Between 2020 and 2024, they ran 48 projects across 524 communities in the country, benefitting 25,000 people directly and 90,000 indirectly.

Experts Have Suspicions

Although poverty reduction in Argentina saw a significant boost in 2025, some are skeptical whether this will help the country long-term. A December 2025 report by the Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina claimed that poverty drops may have been overestimated due to a change in how poverty is measured, according to the Buenos Aires Herald.

UNICEF also warned that, even though child poverty went down last year, it is still possible for an increase in 2026, and that economic recovery “has yet to become firmly established,” according to the Buenos Aires Times.

The representatives of ACDI, too, said that there are still challenges ahead. Although poverty has remained high in Argentina, its development indicators are higher than other countries, making it lose access to funding from international corporations, which many local organizations relied on.

However, the latest official figures show that the decline did not continue into the first half of 2026. INDEC reported that Argentina’s poverty rate reached 32.3%, up from 28.2% in the second half of 2025.

ACDI’s Solutions

In order to support poverty reduction in Argentina, Moresco and Palacio have two suggestions. The first is attracting more philanthropic capital. The two believe that Argentina should take advantage of global investors looking to fund “effective, fast-moving organizations.”

“We think there’s a real opportunity to connect that capital to organized civil society here, especially toward education and workforce training – programs that have historically been difficult to fund through traditional cooperation,” said Moresco and Palacio.

The second, according to the two, is the investment of patient capital, where investors wait years for return rather than short-term profits, into new businesses. This would help diversify the economy and create new jobs in Argentina.

“So in short: strengthening organized civil society and unlocking patient capital for new enterprises – that’s where outside help would move the needle the most,” said the ACDI representatives.

– Koya Weiss

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