Workers in Argentina continue to lose purchasing power in the face of inflation, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC). The wage index showed a monthly increase of 6% in February, but inflation in the same period registered a monthly increase of 6.6%. Public employees were the only ones to gain purchasing power, with an increase of 104.2%, while private employees only saw a salary increase of 99.3%. Meanwhile, unregistered workers are the most affected, with an 80.5% increase in income compared to February 2022.
On the other hand, tax collection at the national level registered a year-on-year increase of 90.2% in April, but in real terms suffered a drop of 8.5%. Export duties plummeted 75% real year-on-year due to lower export sales from the soybean complex and from the agricultural sector in general. In addition, VAT related to the domestic market increased by 11.1% year-on-year in real terms, while income tax fell by 9.5% in real terms.
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As for the foreign exchange sector, the current exchange account presented a deficit of 2,020 million dollars in March, when the same month of the previous year had been a surplus of 486 million dollars. Reserves barely rose by $31 million, despite IMF disbursements. The Oilseeds and Cereals sector registered sales of foreign currency due to receipts from exports of goods for 1,509 million dollars, a 61% year-on-year drop.
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