As Argentina’s over 100% inflation hurts purchasing power and outpaces wages, Jorge Pedro Armoa, 67, has come to a difficult solution: he tries to make ends meet by working three jobs, as a metal worker, a soccer coach and a part-time salesman healing ointments and honey.

Armoa, who lives in a small town on the outskirts of the capital Buenos Aires, gets up early every day and works seven days a week to avoid the poverty that affects nearly four in 10 people in this South American country.

“The situation is complicated. Wages are very low, things are very expensive. So sometimes they are not enough” said Armoa, a metal mold factory worker who is also the technical director of a local soccer team and finances his own small business.

Argentinians are experiencing a very difficult economic crisis with annual inflation at 102.5%, expected to rise further, strict capital controls that are hurting the value of the peso, and dwindling foreign reserves that are fueling fears of a future default.

Poverty, reduced by government support during the COVID-19 pandemic, is estimated to have rebounded to nearly 40% at the end of last year from 36.5% in the first half of 2022 as inflation eroded the purchasing power of wages .

“Our poverty rate forecast…is around 40%” said Martín González Rozada, an economist and professor at Universidad Di Tella, adding that it will likely be even higher in the first months of this year.

“In terms of increases in workers’ incomes, this income has grown less than inflation in the overall staple food basket“, he said, noting that about half of the children in the country live in poor households.

Government benefits and allowances have kept extreme poverty low but difficulties may arise on that front as the state tries to deal with a deep budget deficit and cut spending at a time when dollars are scarce and drought has hit the critical agricultural sector.

Many of Argentina’s nearly 46 million residents cannot afford the basic basket of goods and services, which costs 177,000 pesos a month (about $849).

Armoa, even with three salaries and income from his wife, who works as a teacher’s aide, often struggles to make ends meet.

“With the issue of the price of products, it is difficult to live. But, sometimes we succeed and sometimes we struggle to cope“, he said. “You have to see things positively, have good energy and think that tomorrow things will be better”.