Buenos Aires - The bingo players at a retirement home in Buenos Aires placed the buttons they use as markers on their cards with quivering hands. Their wagering money, coins, and crumpled low-denomination dollars are kept in little containers and seem to be able to purchase fewer things every day.
The twice-weekly game lights up the eyes of the pensioners participating in it in the recreation center serving the middle-class areas of Caballito and Villa Crespo in the capital of Argentina. All of the participants, who are over 80 years old, are in a scenario that they would have found unfathomable before they retired.
"Middle-class folks work at this center. Many of the activities we once engaged in are no longer available to us," according to Betty Santucci, the establishment's manager. "I did something I'd never done in my life: I asked for free medicine," she said gently. Nothing else is possible.
According to Friday's announcement from Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, monthly inflation in March increased to 7.7% from 6.5% in the same month in 2022. According to analysts, yearly inflation, a generally used indicator internationally, would reach 110% in 2023, one of the highest rates in the entire globe.
The greatest drought in the nation's history and the impact of the war (in Ukraine) on worldwide pricing are reflected in today's data, according to a government spokesperson's tweet from Gabriela Cerrutti. We are aware of how it interferes with our daily lives, hurts us, and consumes us.
The effect has been particularly disastrous for Argentina's retirees, 85% of whom receive a monthly state pension of an average of 58,500 pesos ($265). Their costs for food, medication, and housing are barely covered by that.
"I can't even afford to pay my rent, everyday expenditures, services, and food," Paulina Najnudel, 85, remarked as she played bingo, "I have two daughters who bring me a 'small bundle' (of money). But because we've worked so hard for so long, it makes me sad rather than ashamed.
One of the most sophisticated pension systems in South America was found in Argentina, where retirement benefits increased in accordance with a mobility formula based on salaries and tax revenue. Pensions grew by 72.5% between January 2022 and March 2023. However, throughout that time, price increases exceeded 100%.
According to a report by the Argentine consulting firm Focus Market, following years of significant inflation, Argentina's minimum pension is currently one of the lowest in the region, just above Venezuela.
"The minimum pension is not even enough for the basics," remarked Ana Falcone at the retirement facility.
80-year-old Mercedes Villafae discussed the problem while watching a game. "We retirees don't buy food by the kilo when we go shopping. We purchase it by the item—one potato, one onion. Never enough to reach a kilogram, though.
There is now no hope, she said.
The government of President Alberto Fernández has mandated an extra of 15,000 pesos ($67) per month for retirees who earned low wages while employed, but experts feel this is insufficient. The Ombudsman for Senior Citizens revealed at the beginning of April that the cost of one person's essential necessities, including rent, medication, and food, was 202,064 pesos per month, or $914, a 33% rise from six months prior. The crisis' effects are genuine even though they aren't always evident in society, according to Eugenio Semino, chairman of the ombudsman agency.