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BUENOS AIRES, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The poverty rate in Argentina climbed to 32.9 percent in the third quarter of 2016, according to a study released on Thursday.
The report compiled by the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) shows 1.5 million people slipped under the poverty line, increasing the number of poor to nearly 13 million, the largest since 2010.
Extreme poverty reached 6.9 percent of the population over the same period, meaning 600,000 more people joined the ranks of the indigent, to bring the total number to 2.7 million.
"The economic belt-tightening measures, the adverse global situation, the anti-inflationary policy and the lack of private and public investment worsened the crisis," Agustin Salvia, the director of the UCA's Social Debt Watch, said in presenting the report.
In December 2015, when President Mauricio Macri took office, poverty rate was at 29 percent, the report noted.
The conservative Macri took over from a left-leaning administration, pledging to reign in government spending, which led to major increases in the price of utilities, such as electricity, and massive layoffs.
The university's figures are in line with data released in late September by the National Census and Statistics Institute (INDEC) of Argentina, which showed poverty rate at 32.2 percent, and extreme poverty rate at 6.3 percent.
