'We live day to day': Almost half of Argentines in shadow of poverty

Eduardo David Rodriguez, 40, pushes a cart with bags of potatoes at the Mercado Central where he works twice a week earning 12,000 Argentine Pesos ($60) a month, in Buenos Aires, Argentina September 28, 2021. Picture taken September 28, 2021. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Eduardo David Rodriguez takes bags of fruit and vegetables to sell in a fresh produce market in Buenos Aires twice a week to make ends meet for his family. They barely do.

Rodriguez, like over four in ten Argentines, lives below the poverty line, a rate which has climbed during the coronavirus pandemic that exacerbated three years of economic recession in the country, once among the wealthiest in the world.