Net job approval for Argentina's Macri sinks to minus 9%; 82% disapprove handling of inflation.

[forest444]

Amid mounting inflation and layoffs, as well as personal fallout from the recent Panama Papers scandal, Argentine President Mauricio Macri has seen his net job approval decline to negative 9%.

A poll taken last week by Buenos Aires-based Center for Public Opinion Studies (CEOP) of 1,200 people from across the country found that 53.3% of respondents disapproved of his performance, while 44.2% approved. His job approval was nearly balanced at 48.5% as late as April, according to CEOP; Macri enjoyed a net positive approval of more than 21% in his first month in office.

The poll revealed that despite largely positive media coverage by the Clarín Media Group and most other large media in Argentina, Macri's personal approval was under water for the first time since taking office with 46.5% approval and 50.8% disapproval.

The principal factor behind the decline in Macri's image, the poll showed, is an 82.1% disapproval for his anti-inflationary policies. The Macri administration decreed a statistical data blackout just after taking office; but the local, pro-market consulting firm FIEL estimated that annual inflation skyrocketed from 16.1% in November 2015 to 41.5% last month.

Worries over the country's rapidly deteriorating job market are also a factor. Numerous polls revealed that for the first time in over a decade unemployment is of greater concern to the Argentine public than inflation, with 33% pointing to unemployment as the most serious current problem in Argentina (compared to less than 10% last year) and 67% viewing the job market as now being in crisis.

The Argentine Congress is currently debating a Layoff Prevention Law that would mandate that all employers pay a double indemnity to those laid off. President Macri, however, has indicated he would veto the bill, which is currently being delayed in the Senate as a result of legislative maneuvers from Macri's right-wing PRO party and their junior coalition partners, the centrist UCR. The bill has 64% approval according to most polls.

Approximately 250,000 jobs have been lost since Macri took office, including 90,000 salaried private-sector jobs, 70,000 in the public sector, and the remainder among unregistered workers (mainly in construction, which has declined by around 25% in output since last year) and the self-employed. The plight of the self-employed is partly reflected in the number of empty storefronts in Buenos Aires, which rose by 15% over the same time last year.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/ultimas/20-299413-2016-05-15.html&prev=search

And: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.politicargentina.com/notas/201605/13790-la-desocupacion-paso-a-liderar-las-preocupaciones-de-los-argentinos.html&prev=search

[Judi Lynn]

1. It didn't take long, did it? He accomplished this even with complete support from Clarín's empire,

and all the other major public perception interests in the country, too.

"You've done a great job, there, Macri."

[forest444]

2. Ah, the irony: Macri narrowly won by tying his opponents to corruption and inflation.

Only to later have voters discover that his policies bring twice as much inflation, and that he and his associates are twice as corrupt (at least!).

You live; you learn.