Provincial deputy Eloy Echazú announced that he will present a bill to address the increase in delinquency and consumer debts in Santa Cruz. His proposal is based on data from the INDEC, which places Río Gallegos with 8.5% unemployment, the highest rate in Patagonia. The legislator attributed this scenario to economic policies implemented by both the Nation and the Province.
Echazú described a deterioration that combines the closure of small and medium-sized businesses with higher costs for shops and families. He stated that rents became difficult to sustain and that electricity and gas rates accumulated increases of up to 300% during the last six months. He added to that picture almost seven months of frozen wages and a loss of workers' purchasing power.
The financial consequence appears, according to the deputy, in the Central Bank reports that place Santa Cruz among the provinces with the highest credit delinquency and consumer debt. Echazú rejected the idea that this situation can be explained as a lack of willingness to pay or poor household management. His argument links the accumulation of obligations to incomes that remain stagnant in the face of rising basic expenses.
The legislator focused his criticisms on the Banco Santa Cruz Financial Relief Plan. He pointed out that, until the end of June, 3,500 public administration workers had turned to the credit offered by that tool. He also stated that thousands of employees have more than 75% of their salaries committed to debts and questioned that the state response is once again based on new loans.
The announced project seeks to replace that approach with what Echazú defined as real accompaniment tools. The source does not yet detail the articles, beneficiaries, amounts, or financing mechanism of the future initiative. Therefore, the relevant confirmation is political and legislative: the deputy will take the problem to the Chamber, but he still needs to turn his diagnosis into a concrete text suitable for debate.
The next stage will be the formal presentation of the project and the explanation of its instruments. There it must be specified whether the response will apply only to indebted state workers or to other households affected by delinquency, and how it will be coordinated with existing measures. Until then, unemployment, rates, loans, and wage figures form the basis of the claim, not an already approved solution for Santa Cruz families.
