BUENOS AIRES Argentina's poverty rate rose to 40.1% in the first half of 2023, the government's INDEC statistics agency said on Wednesday, up from 39.2% in the second half of 2022.
Over the first half of 2022, it reported a rate of 36.5%.
Argentina, a country of some 46 million people, is rich in natural resources from cattle and corn to natural gas, but plagued by high inflation, years of cyclical debt crises and a historic drought that hit key agricultural areas last season.
The South American nation faces an annual inflation that surpassed 100%, ravaging the purchasing power of millions of Argentines.
(Reporting by Hernan Nessi; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Edtiting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
