The number of people living in poverty in crisis-wracked Argentina fell below 50 percent in the second half of 2003 thanks to the economy's strong recovery, the government said on Thursday.
The rate of poverty among Argentina's 36 million people fell to 47.8 percent in the second half of the year from 54.0 percent in the first half of 2003, the Ministry of Economy said.
The rate is nearly 10 percentage points lower than a year earlier, when Argentina - formerly a solid middle class society - was struggling with a four-year recession, a deep currency devaluation and a record debt default.
Last year, Argentina's gross domestic product rebounded 8.7 percent after a contraction of 10.9 percent in 2002. In four years, the economy shrank by one-fifth.
The poverty line is measured by the amount of income needed to meet basic needs, both food and non-food items. More than 20 percent or 7 million Argentines still do not get enough to eat, but that is 3 million less than the first half of 2003.
The Argentine government, now in thorny negotiations with private creditors holding $88 billion of debt in default for over two years, has said that the country's sudden slide into poverty limits its ability to repay debt.
It is offering just 25 percent of the face value of bonds to more than 500,000 bondholders world-wide and has invited investors to see the social reality of the newly impoverished nation to make its point.
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