A T-shirt for a package of rice, the exchange in Argentina on the eve of elections

A T-shirt in exchange for a package of rice or a dozen eggs: a few days before the presidential election Sunday, in an Argentina plunged into a serious economic crisis, many resort to barter and popular solidarity to survive.

In the suburbs of Greater Buenos Aires, on the corner of a dusty street in the Villa Fiorito neighborhood, some locals offer clothes, shoes and other objects on blankets spread on the ground.

At best, they can be exchanged for a package of pasta, sugar or cookies. Or else, for a few pesos.

“The food is very expensive”Laments Luz López, 25 years old, behind her stand installed in a small square in this working-class neighborhood, in the municipality of Lomas de Zamora, where Diego Maradona grew up.

“Sometimes you walk, you see things, you wash them and bring them back.”explains this woman, mother of two small children.

Next to him, María Fernanda Díaz, 28, says she sleeps under the pedestrian bridge that crosses the boulevard. On a column of the structure, decorated with murals of the soccer legend, there is a poster of Sergio Massa, Peronist Minister of Economy and who on November 19 will contest the presidential runoff against the ultra-liberal Javier Milei.

“Let the politicians come here to see how we live!”says Díaz, who supports himself thanks to what people give him.

Meanwhile, Emilce Bravo, 35, comes several times a week to offer the things he picks up here and there in exchange for food.

In the country of football, but also of soy and beef, prices continue to increase due to uncontrolled inflation (143% in one year) and a plummeting currency. Four out of ten Argentines live in poverty.

“Every day there is a new price, diapers are very expensive; Before, for example, the package was 2,600 pesos, now it is 4,500″says this soup kitchen worker who also manages one of the many Facebook groups in the capital and its periphery dedicated to the exchange of goods.

Hundreds of messages are exchanged daily in these groups where thousands of members offer, for example, “notebooks for cookies” or “cups for eggs”. Once the deal is closed, the barter takes place on a street corner or in small neighborhood fairs.

“We want the theme of barter to be maintained, so that this camaraderie is not lost. In the worst moment of the Argentine economy, this helped us a lot”Bravo explains.

Barter returns

Barter emerged in Argentina in the 1990s and was established as a commercial exchange during the deep crisis of 2001, when the country suffered the largest default in its history (US$ 100 billion), followed by a confiscation of bank deposits and a bloody outbreak. social.

“Poverty in Argentina is very dramatic and a gigantic part of what prevents this situation from being truly unsustainable is the great network of popular organization that exists.”Mariana Luzzi, a sociologist at the national research institute Conicet, explains to AFP.

“Barter returns in this very precarious sense, people who are going to offer very few things, the few they have and who exchange them for others that they need a lot”, adds the expert.

Elisabet Bacigalupo, economist at the consulting firm Abeceb, explained that “The Argentine has a very strong capacity for resilience because he has already had a bad time many times.”, and estimated that inflation will touch 190% year-on-year at the end of 2023.

The next president will then have the difficult task of stabilizing a deeply unbalanced economy.

However, according to Bacigalupo, this will probably involve “months of recession and an increase in poverty”, especially if the arsonist Milei wins, who says he wants to cut state expenses with a chainsaw.