Argentina: economic contraction of 2.9% in July and poverty at 32.3%

Economic activity in Argentina contracted by 2.9% month-on-month in July - the worst figure since the pandemic - while the poverty index recorded an increase of 3.4 percentage points in the first half of 2026, according to official data published today by the National Institute of Statistics (Indec).

The monthly economic activity indicator (EMAE) also marks -1.4% compared to July 2025 while the data accumulated in the first seven months of the year marks an increase of 1.7% compared to the same period of the previous year.

According to what Indec reports, eight out of fifteen sectors of the economy have recorded declines on an annual basis.

The greatest contractions concern trade (-5.1% on an annual basis) and the manufacturing industry (-4.6% on an annual basis) which alone impact the trend variation of the EMAE by 1.3 percentage points.

On the poverty front, the increase in the first half of the year brought the overall index to 32.3% of the population, a figure which is equivalent to 15 million Argentines out of a total of 46.4 million.