Buenos Aires (AFP)
Unpaid loans, debts to the children's school, the doctor or the psychologist: the Argentine middle class is on the verge of "default of payment", like the accounts of the country.
"We can not pay everything, we sink little by little," laments Monica who, ashamed of the late payment of the tuition fees of her two children, does not want to give his name and refuses to be photographed.
Like many of her friends, this 42-year-old lawyer and her husband, an accountant, maintain their standard of living at the price of unpaid bills, while inflation in Argentina could reach 50% this year.
"Without savings, we started three years ago to pay our daily expenses with credits.In the past, it was to buy Christmas presents, today it is to pay for the light, the telephone, the food, all!".
Like the country that has just asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescheduling of its debt of $ 57 billion, the strategy implemented by the family on a daily basis has led to debts now impossible to honor.
"In the beginning, we refunded all the credit granted by our credit card at the end of each month, and then we did not get it, and with the interest rate (up to 170% annually ), we are on the verge of ruin, "says the forty-year-old, incredulous at the speed of change.
In order not to give up the use of the family car, Monica converted it to natural gas, half the price of gasoline. To save on the hairstyle, she learned how to cut her hair herself.
Luckily, the couple owns their apartment and has a job, in a country where the unemployment rate reaches 10% and poverty affects 32% of the population.
"We have a debt to the psychologist, we are late for the payment of condominium fees and the mutual, we do not go to the supermarket, but in wholesale stores and we give up holidays," enumerates she.
- "Pay, pay" -
Neither she nor her husband supports the government of center-right president Mauricio Macri, who appealed in 2018 to the IMF, but could not prevent the economy from entering recession and the currency from unscrewing.
The president seeks a second term on 27 October, but his opponent, left-center Peronist Alberto Fernandez, is the favorite.
"What do we hope for? We know it will take us years to get back on the water and get out of debt, and maybe we'll never get there," the lawyer said.
Neither Monica, Miguel, 50, wants to give his name. Married, father of a 17-year-old girl, he makes household in a company. The spiral of his debts prevents him from sleeping.
"In three years, I took out four loans: two to pay the credit on my card, which my bank finally withdrew because I did not pay anymore, and two others to pay the first loans because the interest rates were gone in lollipop, "he explains.
Half of his salary of 30,000 pesos (460 euros) goes to the repayment of his loans.
To save on transportation, he makes a part of his daily commute by bike. "In this way, I spend only 300 pesos (4.50 euros) per month, otherwise it would be double".
"Little pleasures - not even family cinema once a month, only pay, pay," the elderly man in his mother's house, who is living in his mother's home, says again.
At least he has no rent to pay unlike Claudia, 45. The company where she was working went out of business in 2017 and she had to move to a studio with her two 11- and 17-year-old children.
"I went from managing 40 stores to doing housework on time," she says.
Last year, she took her daughter out of private school and put her in a public school with canteen. "They always let her bring an extra tray" at home, she says embarrassed. Sometimes she only drinks a glass of sweet water as a supper.
© 2019 AFP