Congressmen spend up to S/190 a day on food, what is the position of most Peruvians?

A recent report showed that Congress increased food spending per parliamentarian to 190 sols a day, close to what constitutes a basic food basket. feeding per person in 2021, according to the latest INEI data.

Although the Legislative Assembly has announced that it will reconsider this cost, the situation is controversial due to the difficulties that most Peruvians face on a daily basis. Common Pots of Lima spokesman Fortunata Palomino called this fact “a slap in the face poverty”.

“The truth is a slap in the face of our poverty, reality. It feels like these congressmen are living behind the scenes of reality. Every day we cook for the minimum amount, the amount we put in for 120, 160 servings is 100 soles, which cook less than 50, 60 salts, but without taking into account gas, rice, oil,” he said at the RPP.

common pots They point out that their average budget for breakfast, lunch and dinner per person is 3 sols 60 cents, but warn that price increases have hit them hard.

This situation may have exacerbated the level of food insecurity already observed in Peru. Mariana Escobar, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), points out that more than half of Peruvians face nutritional problems.

“Starting in 2022, Peru, with a population of 16.6 million, has been in a situation food insecurity, 50.5% of the population. We are talking about acute and moderate food insecurity, which means that the majority of people who are in this condition or who do not have access to three meals a day do not have the resources to access healthy food,” he said.

To this day, Peru continues to rank as the country with the highest level of food insecurity in South America. In addition, the Global Hunger Index (IGH) indicates that seven regions of Peru are in dire straits.

Apurimac, Huancavelica and Ayacucho These are the departments with the highest levels of hunger, said Miguel Pintado, an economist at the Peruvian Center for Social Research (CEPES).

“Because we already have more or less 20 months of continuous inflation, there is still no improvement expected this year. In the case of rural areas, the global hunger index in Peru will remain the same, while in the case of urban areas it may improve slightly,” he says.

In addition to these indicators, United Nations data also warns that food insecurity resulted in 2.7 million Peruvians suffering from malnutrition in 2021.

At the moment there is no update from the end of 2022, but the forecasts are not positive, as inflation reached its highest level in 26 years last year.