“It’s like dead”

(CNN Espasol) – “It’s like dead, you don’t, do you see?” This was acknowledged by Francisco, who lives in Buenos Aires, who before the epidemic believed that “at least it was the poor middle class … now directly the poor.”

Poverty went up from 30.5% to 33.7%, according to Alberto Arenas, director of community development at ECLAC.

• 8 million People are newly homeless

In this sense, Arenas pointed out that extreme poverty or extreme poverty went from 11.3% to 12.5%.

The social impact of the epidemic may have been worse, Arenas explained. “Without money transfers, poverty would reach 37.2% and extreme poverty 15.8%.” According to the ECLAC plans, 1.5 points in the region’s GDP were allocated to social assistance to control the impact of the epidemic.

I lost everything, my job, I could not pay the rent. Everything is getting worse, ”said Francisco.

According to official figures, the strong economic downturn the country has experienced is estimated at 9.9%. Imprisonment has been an excellent conditioning factor. For 232 days, the country was subject to social, preventive and compulsory isolation. “This isolation in Argentina is one of the longest in the world,” said ECLAC’s Director of Community Development.

Hunger is terrible. I can’t describe to you how ugly it is to be hungry and on the street, ”says Francisco.

About 11 million poor people returned to soup kitchens during epidemics. Three million of them have never been. “Fortunately these places are … if not, what will we live for?” Said Francisco.

Homeless people have lunch on March 23, 2021 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Michael Shinkariol / AFP via Getty Images)

According to the ECLIC, Mexico is the second poorest country in the world by 2020. Despite a strong increase in the number of the poor, neither Mexico nor Argentina have a bad record. Honduras, Guatemala And Nicaragua have higher poverty rates.

“It simply came to our notice then. I have my application here, I have registered for 10 jobs and no one has called me, ”says Francisco about his efforts to regain income.

• 7.7 points Latin America’s GDP plummeted

“This is the worst data in the region in the last 120 years,” Arenas said. In addition, a representative of ECLAC noted that unemployment has reached 10.6%. “Labor participation has declined, especially among women,” she explained. Costa Rica and Chile are the countries where most women have lost their jobs, according to the Social Panorama Report of the ECLAC in Latin America. In addition, young people and informal wage earners are, as Arenas describes, the other two groups most affected by the fall in employment.

• Recovery 3,7 Points in GDP by 2021

These are estimates made by ECLAC. However, the official warned that this could lead to fluctuations. “Without controlling the health crisis, it is absolutely impossible and almost impossible to have a sustainable recovery,” he points out. In this sense, the second wave of Govt-19 threatens to prevent a recurrence in economic and social indicators. For this reason, the official highlights the importance of advancing through vaccination, but the ratings there are not hopeless. He warned of access to vaccines that were “not equal” in the region, resulting in a delay in the level of herd immunity expected in some countries by 2023.