The Government will maintain the $55,000 bonus but the assets lose 30% due to the “caputazo”

According to reports, the Government will maintain the bonus of $55,000 for retirees who earn the minimum salary and the salary floor will then remain at just over $160,000. In this way, they will remain frozen, despite the fact that December inflation shot up to around 30% monthly and inflation levels of 20-25% are expected between January and February.

Thus, retirees will receive the same sum that Anses paid in December after applying the last quarterly increase of the year, of 20.87%, resulting in a minimum asset of $ 105,000 that, due to the loss compared to inflation, the previous government “compensated “only for the lowest salaries, granting discretionary fixed sums called bonuses. Assets exceeding $160,000 did not receive any compensation.

Without a bonus, as of December the minimum retirement lost more than 40 points of purchasing power compared to November 2015 (before Macri took office), and more than 20 points compared to November 2019 (before Alberto Fernández took office).

The “compensation” that the Frente de Todos government tried to make with that bonus or reinforcement for the minimum in the face of the “liquefaction” of assets against inflation left Milei with the option of eliminating the bonus to adjust, without the need to touch on pension mobility.

But the Milei government will prepare to suspend pension mobility and replace it with a formula decided, not in Congress, but by the Executive branch itself. This is what he established in the draft “omnibus law” sent to Congress. Likewise, until the new pension formula is defined, they will grant sums defined by decree, at the discretion of the money they consider “available” to pay retirements. The same Milei who states that “there is no money” will be the one who decides how much retirees will earn if this project prospers.

The adjustment package that the Milei Government presented upon taking office includes a cut of 0.4% of GDP in retirements and pensions. This represents close to US$2 billion and would imply a loss of more than 6% in real terms.