Supermarket looting helped spark the crisis that toppled presidents

The weak domestic currency, the peso, has prompted overseas Argentines to begin paying for weekly shops for their families in Argentina on the internet using credit cards and their stronger foreign currencies.

The crisis has presented Argentina's well-educated workforce with high unemployment and bleak prospects, resulting in an exodus overseas.

The balance of remittances to and from Argentina also appears to have shifted dramatically since the crisis took grip.

Food for export

Two of every 100 pesos spent buying groceries from Argentine supermarkets on the internet are now paid for by Argentines abroad, particularly in the United States and Spain, reports Argentine newspaper El Clarin.

Argentina is the world's fifth largest food exporter, and, with the value of the peso slashed, agricultural producers have found profits from exports soaring, and have been reluctant to sell for less on the domestic market.

Food prices have risen while the peso has fallen, making the cost of basic necessities more and more expensive.

Argentines overseas are also using more traditional means to help out families at home.

Until 2002, Argentina was the sole Latin American nation which sent out more money than it received in remittances, according to Western Union, an international money transfer company.

It says that in 2001 about $132m was sent from Argentina to neighbouring Latin American nations, especially Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru, El Clarin reports.

In 2002, however, outgoing remittances totalled only some $36m, while ingoing remittances swelled to at least $144m. Some well-placed sources, the paper says, suggest that figure is closer $300m.