Before traveling to China, Sergio Massa dropped the order by manage dollars until external funds appear. The lack of foreign currency has led in recent days to negotiate greater restrictions with large companies, including automotive companies, but the “design” also included a sweetener: a “dollarized” bond to tempt oil companies because they advance foreign currency to finance their imports and get some coverage for their pesos.
Specific, the Central Bank relaunched a bill payable in pesos and adjusted to the official exchange rate, interest-free (LEDIV). Thus, if the energy companies liquidate foreign credits or advance exports for a minimum period of 180 days to pay for imports, with the pesos they have not used to buy dollars at official value they will be able to buy BCRA securities for hedge against possible future impairment.
“It’s like foreign exchange insurance against external financingThey advance the dollars and next year when they have to return them, they will return the pesos they have not used at an updated value,” they explained in an official dispatch. The regulation was published on Wednesday, the same day the government notified companies that most import fuel (YPF, Raizen and Trafigura) the new regime so they can self-finance overseas purchases for up to 90 days.
The system implies that they have to get the dollars from their parent companies or international banks through the exchange rate. The novelty is that they are offered a mechanism to compensate for the “effort”, but private oil companies believe it is “half Chinese”. Their main fear is to borrow dollars to import fuel which they then sell on the local market in pesos at a regulated price (an increase of 4%, when the official devaluation is 7% per month).
The changes that Massa began devising in February thus face an unexpected complication, which is the destination of the pesos that companies will not use to buy dollars and pay for imports. Basically, due to the doubts that there are in some individuals about “lending” pesos to the Centrale. “The feeling is that it is very risky to import products in these conditions and the letter would not fully cover this risk.a source in the energy sector said.
Indeed, the letter satisfies a function similar to the fixed term “chacarero”. The Central Bank launched this instrument linked to the value of cereals and the official dollar in June last year. The expectation was that the producers would sell their cereals and the exporters would settle the dollars, but it did not have the expected results and with the arrival of Massa, a step forward was taken with the soybean dollar, an initiative that lost firepower in its latest edition and expires this week.
The difference in the energy sector is this The government has a key player: YPF. From the semi-state company they have not specified whether they will place the excess pesos at the BCRA. As winter approaches, the economy minister is concerned about the increase in demand for fuels (and dollars), an area in which Energía Argentina (ENARSA) and the wholesale administrator of the electricity market stand out, CAMMESA.
Within this framework, they also negotiate with automotive, mass-consumption and food companies. The idea is to “free up” 3,000 million dollars of imports for other sectors. In the case of the terminals, the authorities have been more demanding: they have asked them to finance themselves abroad with terms of up to 195 days to import cars and 75 to purchase parts, instead of the current 120 and 45 days. “It will be the new deadlines,” admitted one executive.
AQ
Source: Clarin
