In the last wheel of an “extra short” week, and just on the day of the 3 soy dollar launch, The central bank failed to turn off the dollar tap and lost $110 million. In this way, in the first three shifts in April, the organism has already got rid of 418 million dollars, in a trend that worries the market.

This afternoon, Sergio Massa finally announced the “Export Enhancement Programme”, which will start on April 8th and run until May 31st, and includes an exchange rate of $300 to improve the incentive for agricultural sectors. The measure could have some effect on reserves from Monday and seeks to somewhat mitigate the impact of the drought and the dynamics of net sales in the wholesale segment.

Since the start of the year The Central Bank sold 3,400 million dollars, with a pace and volume not seen in the past two decades, since the release of the convertible. The situation has worsened since March: 23 rounds have now passed since the Central Bank closed with a sale balance due to its intervention in the so-called “Single and Free Foreign Exchange Market” (MULC).

The photo contrasts even more with what has been seen in the last two years, when in the first quarter the agency managed to buy more than 2.3 billion dollars. The market sees a “new patch” in Massa’s latest measures to avoid a devaluation. “Government estimates to rack up about $3.5 billion would represent the MULC deficit so far this year (about $3.3 billion,” Aurum Valores said.

In addition to selling reserves, this Wednesday the Central Bank has again slowed down its daily pace of devaluation. “In the short week of the Easter holiday, the wholesale exchange rate rose $2.21, well below the $3.23 adjustment the previous week,” said foreign exchange operator Gustavo Quintana at the end of the conference.

Economist Gustavo Ber said: “Pending, yet still challenging ~$400, financial dollars are facing an ongoing search for cover in a high-nominal economy scenario, coupled with the usual uncertainty of a phase pre-election , and the risks of further monetary expansion associated precisely with the implementation of the “sour dollar”.