Slowly, the Central Bank began to do so open the dollar tap for importers and thus has slowed the amount of foreign currency that can be purchased on the foreign exchange market for its reserves.
After closing last week with record purchases for 300 million dollars, On Monday the body chaired by Santiago Bausili recorded a balance sheet $81 million buyer. In any case, the organization managed to increase its gross reserves by 20 million dollars, which closed this Monday at approximately 23,996 million dollars.
In a day with little activity in the local marketsince it moved without the reference that the United States Stock Exchange usually gives for a holiday in that country, the Central Bank began to authorize, as expected for the “Now 4” payments, four installments in dollars for import operations processed since last December 13th.
At that time, the Central Bank announced that from January, and gradually, imports would be released. For this reason it has established a staggered system of access to the MULC (Single Free Trade Market). This is what the City calls “Now 4”: payments will be made in four installments, each equal to 25% of the total amount requested.
The first payments began to be released this Monday. Many companies in the sector have been able to “schedule” pending operations payment for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, so in the coming days you may see more dollar outflows into the MULC to serve the import sector.
In the City they warn that, despite the positive balance achieved by Central at the beginning of the week, private demand in the MULC is in the crosshairs. If this begins to resurface, it will be crucial monitor the behavior of the CCL to determine whether exports continue to flow. If the gap widens again, export clearance could be blocked again,” they warned in the PPI.
“In this context, if access to private demand increases, we do not exclude that the BCRA will significantly slow down its purchasing pace and even switch from a net buyer to a net seller in the MULC, which could worsen expectations. However, “If the CCL continues to compress, export liquidation has everything to continue flowing. In this case, even if the pace of purchases would decrease somewhat due to the increased access of imports to the MULC, the monetary authority would avoid obtaining a negative result,” they added .
The limited amount for this Monday, approximately 138 million dollars were managed In the cash segment it is not enough to anticipate what the Central’s performance will be in the next rounds. At the same time, there is some expectation on the market for a new tender for Bopreal, the security with which the Government tries to pay off the debt with the importing sector.
The Central Bank presented this Monday to new tender notice for this instrument, which will take place between Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
The Central has published two new communications, which accelerate Bopreal’s operation on the markets. The first was “A” 7940/2024 in which the possibility of selling these instruments on the financial market and transferring dollars to an account abroad was made official. At the same time, through Communication “A” 7941/2024, it was indicated that those who subscribe to the bonus by 31 January for an amount equal to or greater than 50% of the total residual amount of their admitted debts, They will be able to access the official dollar from next month.
In the parallel market, demand for dollars continued to grow. On the one hand, the blue dollar started the week with a rise of 10 dollars, at 1,130 dollars, remaining above the price of the MEP dollar, which moved with a jump of 2.6% and closed just above $1,125. Meanwhile, the dollar counted with the liquidation rising another 2.6% and closed at $1,164. The gap with the official ended up close to 42%.
Source: Clarin
