The supply of foreign currency in the exchange market recovered this Tuesday, to return to levels more in line with the period of high liquidations, although far from the highs of the year, above 600 million dollars. Deals in the cash segment totaled about $343.8 million, a significant jump from less than $200 million on Monday. This obvious improvement enabled purchases from the Central Bank for about USD 219 million63.7% of the total.
The entity raised the absorption of foreign currency to USD 589 million in the first tranche of May. Since Monday, December 11, BCRA made net purchases for USD 15,330 million in almost five months. The entity only made sales in four operational wheels during that period since Santiago Bausili assumed the presidency of the organization.
On the other hand, the international reserves gained USD 101 millionto 27,788 million, in a wheel with declines for the Chinese yuan (-0.1%) and gold (-0.4%) against the US dollar. Under the administration of La Libertad Avanza this stock increases by USD 6.58 billion (+31%) from USD 21,208 million on December 7.
“Beyond the fact that an acceleration of settlements continues to be expected, operators anticipate that said greater supply of foreign currency would be close to starting and thus allow a greater pace to be recovered in BCRA purchases. “That is why financial dollars continue to go through a stage of renewed calm, after the last modest readjustment due to successive rate cuts, and thus it is anticipated that they will continue in the short term as the exchange rate appreciation extends accompanying the ordering of the economy,” he explained. Gustavo Bereconomist at Estudio Ber.
“Given that one of the scenarios of the current transition is convergence to a ‘currency competition’ regime, it is useful to consider Peru’s experience from the early 1990s, when it left hyperinflation behind. With ‘free choice of currencies’, the Peruvian economy was ‘de-dollarized’, but almost a decade after the start of the scheme. At the beginning, 70% or more of the deposits in the financial system were denominated in dollars, while at present this participation is less than 30%,” indicated a report from the IERAL of the Mediterranean Foundation.
The Secretary of Finance, Pablo Quirnoand the vice president of the Central Bank, Vladimir Werning, traveled to the United States to complete the evaluation of the first quarter guidelines corresponding to the extended facilities agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) signed in 2022 by the administration of Alberto Fernandez.
The government of Javier Milei exceeded the goals agreed upon with the multilateral organization in the first quarter of the year and is on track to achieve a disbursement of about 800 million dollars. It is possible that at the end of next week the formal approval of this transfer of resources will be known, after meeting the objectives of the fiscal surplus and the accumulation of the Central Bank’s reserves.
On the other hand, the BCRA will begin this week a last attempt to complete the issuance of the Bopreal (Bond for the Reconstruction of a Free Argentina) the dollar title issued by the monetary authority to cancel part of the debt for imports, some USD 1.8 billion that remain to be awarded to reach the authorized limit for the placement of the last series, 3, which had less appeal for importers.
According to data updated as of May 3, the Central Bank registers in its menu of remunerated liabilities a stock of USD 9,097 million for the total of the three series issued by Bopreal.
