In a hot week for alternative dollars, the Central Bank completed the largest market buy in the past three months. This Wednesday bagged 239 million dollars, an amount even higher than the 203 million dollars which have been settled in this round through the soybean dollar II.
In the midst of the turbulence with the dollar, the government tried to focus attention on the purchases of the Centrale. So much so that the data that is normally released by the monetary authority this time came from the Palazzo delle Finanze.
They said in a statement that “This was the largest daily buy since the last round in September and brought the positive balance for December to $1,314 million.”
In the cumulative 2022, the Central bought on the market US$5.150 million. “When the soybean exporter program reopened on November 28, they were liquidated $2.858 million”which is close to the goal of reaching 3,000 million US dollars, just two days before the end of the soybean II dollar.
The entry of these dollars is decisive for reaching the reserve objective set with the IMF, and despite the accounts closing this year, alarms are already going off on what will happen in the summer due to the drought and consequence of a lower harvest and therefore less foreign currency.
In parallel, the alternative dollar segment continued to heat up. In the open, the blue jumped three weights and was trading at $359 for a good chunk of the wheel. After noon he backtracked and ended up at $357, one weight on tuesday. So marked back to nominal record by 2022.
Either way, the current leap is far from the overcoming October 2020, when blue hit $195, which is equivalent in real terms to a current dollar of $619. The same happens with last July’s $350, which, adjusted for inflation, equals $460 today, according to Portfolio Personal Inversiones (PPI) accounts.
So far this month, blue has advanced 43 pesos. For the year it represents a 73% increase, below inflation which is looming at 95%. However, the recent leap has allowed the alternative dollar to catch up and outperform the official one. Wholesale trade increased by 71%, just below informal and in line with cash with liquids and MEP.
To explain the blue jump, in PPI they mark that “a supply gap would have been generated in the informal market when the offer of hospitality tourism starts from the entry into force of the liquidation to the euro deputy dollar of credit cards for foreigners”.
Added to this is a leap in local demand from Argentines who go on holiday abroad and for whom it is cheaper to pay bills than with a card with a Qatari dollar – which is applied to any consumption outside the country exceed $300 per month – in $366. The Qatari dollar remains the most expensive on the market and outnumbers the blue by nine pesos.
Turbulence also on financial dollars: the MEP opened with increases that brought him to touch 345 dollars and closed at $331. Cash with liquid or CCL, the dollar used by companies, reached $348 and closed at $346a 2.6% jump on the day.
The ups and downs of financial dollars reveal the government’s interest in controlling these prices to prevent them from rising further and sending that pressure to the blue.
“This should not be overlooked strong official interventions (BCRA and ANSES) are detected in MEP and CCL contain a further escalation, so that the 6% divergence between informal and financial prices can close on the upside”, points out from Ppi.
To lower the CCL, official bodies come out to sell GD30 bonds, one of the main securities used in this deal. “The trading volume of GD30 against pesos is skyrocketing. Yesterday almost 300 million nominals were operated on and today more than 350 million nominals. The previous time that the traded volumes doubled was in June/July”, write from Aurum Valores.
AQ
Source: Clarin
