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Instead it was to mourn the "death" of the wages of Argentine
workers in a country where inflation is expected to hit 90% by
the end of this year, eating up workers' purchasing power
despite years of government attempts to curb price increases.
"The situation for the workers is devastating. Before the middle
of the month we don't have any more salary, it's not enough,"
Melisa Gargarello, a representative of the Front of
Organizations in Struggle (FOL), the protest's organizer, told
Reuters.
One protester carried a "clinical history" for Argentine wages,
a chart showing how inflation has eaten up the value of
paychecks.
While much of the world is battling high single-digit inflation
this year, Argentina's struggles are in a different category.
"The paycheck has died" read a banner in the symbolic
procession, which toured the main streets of Argentina's capital
and ended in front of the Presidential Palace. The flower crowns
worn by women carried the message "RIP the minimum wage."
The country's official monthly minimum wage stands at 45,540
Argentine pesos ($334) while a basic food basket for a family of
two adults and two children costs more than twice that amount at
111,298 pesos ($817), according to the national statistics
institute INDEC.
Years of political efforts to curb inflation have done little to
abate price increases, and in July the country registered its
highest inflation rate in 20 years.
The latest effort involves the appointment of a new economy
minister, Sergio Massa, who has been granted expanded powers to
try to tame inflation. Argentines have dubbed him a "superminister."
"Today we are holding a symbolic funeral for wages, which we
have to say expresses the situation that all workers in
Argentina are experiencing," said FOL's Maximiliano Maita.
($1 = 136.1500 Argentine pesos)
(Reporting by Horacio Soria; Writing by Carolina Pulice Editing
by Leslie Adler)
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