The free dollar started the week with a drop of two pesos, to $202 for sale, a low since December 21. Over the course of 2022, the free dollar fell by eight pesos or 3.8 percent.
Other alternative quotes to the currency “stock”, such as the “liquidated spot” and the MEP dollar, were also polled since mid-November at $188 and $187, respectively. Financial dollars come from registering their biggest weekly decline of the year, following the average sanction in the Chamber of Deputies of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Meanwhile, the wholesale dollar ended up being offered at $109.20, with an increase of 32 cents (+0.3%) to narrow the exchange rate gap to 83.2% with respect to the “blue” dollar, and to 74% compared to the “cash cash”.
The collapse of stock dollars was so marked that now the dollar to the public in banks, which averages $189.17 for sale, is more expensive than MEP and “liqui”, which savers can access without a monthly quota of $200.
The Central Bank bought some USD 91 million in the cash round, to add up to a positive net balance of about USD 556 million so far in March, after four months with a negative balance for its interventions.
The Central Bank's international reserves grew last week by about USD 157 million and ended at 37,263 million dollars.
As of this Monday, the agreement with the Fund will be discussed in the Senate, with half sanction in deputies, with presentations by the Chief of Staff, Juan Manzur, the Minister of Economy, Martin Guzmán, the head of the BCRA, Miguel Pesce, and other authorities, in order to explain in the upper house the agreement concluded with the IMF.
The new agreement with the IMF, which seeks to be approved before a maturity of about USD 2.8 billion on March 22, establishes a grace period of four and a half years and extends disbursement payments to 10 years, so the government will begin to cancel the debt in 2026 and end in 2034.
The implementation of the understanding will require meeting growth targets, public sector financing, lowering inflation and adding reserves to the Central Bank, among other guidelines.
“The rise in commodity prices on the world market has ambivalent effects on Argentina. Agro-industrial exports could increase this year $4 billion - despite the effects of drought - but the deterioration of the energy trade balance could reach $6.4 billion. Considering these items of the trade balance, there would be a decrease of 2.4 billion dollars in the income of dollars to the country,” said the IERAL (Institute for Studies on Argentine and Latin American Reality) of the Mediterranean Foundation in a report.
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