The amount traded in the wholesale market improved this Thursday by an appreciable USD 163.7 million or 77.4% compared to the previous round, to reach USD 375.4 million in the cash segment. However the Central Bank had to contribute sales for USD 85 million to supply private demand.
In this way, the balance of official intervention in the exchange market so far June -with only one operational round left- reached net sales of 46 million of dollars. It should be remembered that the Central Bank had been chaining seven consecutive months with a buying balance, since November 2023. Also, so far this month the entity sold currencies in eight sessions and ended with a buyer’s balance of seven. Thus, June will be the first month of the BCRA with a negative balance in the Milei government.
Meanwhile, the Bookings international of the entity fell by USD 137 million, to USD 29.748 billionas they also felt the impact of official sales made on Wednesday.
The decrease in reserves also has an accounting basis, which is recorded at each end of the month and is compensated in the first rounds of the following month, a movement that also occurred in previous months. “There is a seasonal effect at the end of the month in financial institutions that generates demand that is later reversed,” they stated. Infobae Central Bank sources.
The Central Bank has accumulated net purchases in the foreign exchange market for USD 17,240 million since December 11 of last year, when Javier Milei’s government took office. At the same time, the stock of international reserves improved by USD 8,539 million or 40.3%, from USD 21,209 million on December 7, 2023.
“I would lift the restrictions now, we must realistically address the conditions and requirements for Argentina to have the capacity to insert itself in the world. Inevitably, this implies a current account surplus, after interest and services, of a significant magnitude, because we have to repay the debt, and the interest is very expensive, and because we have to accumulate reserves,” said the economist and national deputy. Ricardo Lopez Murphy by radio Rivadavia.
“If we intend to live with a current account deficit, going into debt, as we have done many times, that always ends badly. Why don’t we go the other way? To have room for manoeuvre. The key to Argentine development is to grow in exports, investments, formal private employment. What reforms are we making? Change control prevents going there“, argument.
It should be noted that the foreign currency debt payments that the national government and the BCRA will have to face in July amount to USD 6,504 million, according to data from the National Congress Budget Office (OPC).
Of this total, USD 645 million must be paid to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for which part of the USD 790 million disbursement from the approval of the eighth review will be used. In addition, other multilateral organizations must be paid USD 301 million in capital and USD 130 million in interest. The due date is July 16, but it is estimated that it will be postponed until the end of the month, as was done in previous months with the capital obligations (interest cannot be extended).
Another key date is July 9, when USD 2,558 million must be paid for public securities issued with the 2020 sovereign debt restructuring.
USD 543 million in principal will be paid in Bonares (under Argentine law: AL29, AL30, AL35, AL38 and AL41) and USD 423 million in interest on those same securities. USD 583 million in principal and USD 901 million in interest will be paid in Globales in dollars (under foreign law: GD29, GD30, GD35, GD38, GD41 and GD46). Globales in euros (GE29, GE30, GE35, GE38, GE41 and GE46) are also maturing for USD 51 million in principal and the same amount of interest.
Meanwhile, on July 28, the province of Mendoza must pay USD 7 million of capital from a placement and the BCRA must give it the foreign currency. Finally, the BCRA has to face maturities of Non-Transferable Letters for USD 2,652 million (capital) and USD 217 million (interest), but in this case they can be renewed almost in their entirety.
The Finance Secretariat announced on Wednesday that with the surplus of $2.7 billion obtained from the auction of short-term bonds in pesos, it will buy dollars to meet part of this payment schedule. For the second half of the year, the Government has to face obligations for USD 8.312 billion, of which only USD 1.552 are from the IMF. But at the same time it will not receive new disbursements from the organization and will have to face them with its own resources.
