In November, without the soybean dollar and despite the Qatari tourist dollar, import restrictions and the purchase of dollars by state subsidy recipients, the exchange balance closed with a deficit of US$ 1,201 million.
Meanwhile, there was a decline in international reserves and higher interest payments on public and private debt. ($905 million)
Is that last month, the sector “Oilseeds and Grains” it totaled foreign currency sales for export receipts of goods through the foreign exchange market of USD 1,659 million (-23% year-on-year).
The lower receipts from goods sector in November responded to the partial cancellation of net debt which they had in September under the “Export Enhancement Program” set up by the national government” (dollar-soybean of $200.)
On the other hand, due to the restrictions, “payments for imports of goods amounted to $5,560 million, 3% less than in the same month of the year.
Meanwhile, in November, gross travel expenses amounted to USD 531 million“with a reduction of 14% compared to the previous month and 31% compared to September”.
The BCRA report attributes this to the fact that since Oct. 12, all monthly card purchases over US$300 must pay a surcharge of 25% above the official dollar price, due to personal property tax. This additional percentage is added to two other surcharges already in force: 30% of the PAIS tax and 45% of the personal income tax advance.
However, so far this year, the services account shows a cumulative deficit of USD 9,633 million, representing a 157% increase over the same period last year, driven primarily by growth in gross expenses for “Travel, tickets and other card payments” and, to a lesser extent, “Freight and Insurance” in a context of rising prices for the international transport of goods.
For their part, 575,000 “Human Persons” bought tickets for $114 million in November, 6% less than in October, when there were 619,000.
Instead, there was a net outflow of USD 917 million mainly due to net “Interest” payments of USD 905 million. Within the gross interest payments, USD 707 million was made by the “General Government and BCRA”, while the private sector totaled USD 210 million.
For all this, in November, BCRA’s international reserves decreased by USD 667 million, “mainly for sales of BCRA on the foreign exchange market and net payments, net outflows for payments to the International Monetary Fund and other international organizations of USD 441 million (payments to the IMF were equivalent to USD 563 million, SDR 442 million , in the concept of interest and fees) and a reduction in the entities’ holdings of approximately $300 million.”
The decline in reserves was not greater “due to the increase in the US dollar value of the assets that make up the reserves by 836 million dollars”, concludes the Bcra Report.
Source: Clarin
