Without restrictions on overseas trips and, despite super exchange rate trap controls, spending in dollars with a credit card is growing every month. In the ironed dollar, Argentines once again demanded foreign currency for consumption abroad and the tourism account is starting to become another variable of concern at the Central Bank.

According to partial data for the month of March from the financial authority, up to the 30th of last month, On average, the stock of dollars consumed in plastics reached US $ 200 million, 48% more than was registered in December 2021 and 150% above the level it showed last year.

The stability of the exchange rate and, more importantly, the depreciation of the dollar, which added to greater tourist activity due to the summer season, boosted the demand for “dollar cards”. The so -called “solidarity dollar”, a quote that includes 30% of the nation’s tax and 35% of withholdings before Income Tax, ended last month at $ 192, eight pesos below the blue level.

The Argentines took advantage of that window of opportunity to make dollars. Guillermo Barbero of First Capital Markets explained: “What we saw in March was a continuation of the trend that started in February, when this type of consumption jumped.”

“The reactivation of overseas travel as a result of the collapse of many of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, stemmed from the appearance of consumption in foreign currency. However, we must emphasize that the balances currently achieved are lower on the achievements of recent years.with the emergence of COVID-19, when the monthly stock reached US $ 600 million“, added the economist.

The “picture” presented by the data from the Central Bank is in line with the data presented by AFIP in its last tax collection report, which corresponds to the month of March.

Treasury revenue for Country taxthe “emergency” tax created by the Government of Alberto Fernández in 2019, has a total March the $ 22,823 million, the highest collection since it appeared, in December of that year. In addition, they accumulated in the first quarter of the year 90% more than was registered in the same period of 2021.

The body headed by Mercedes Marcó del Pont has already discounted that tax collection will grow 5% more than inflation this year, and 65% of that increase would be explained by higher “solidarity dollar” collections. This tax doesn’t just affect consumption made using foreign currency plastics, either overseas or on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime or Spotify.

This growth shows a warning sign within the Central Bank, which ahead of it is the difficult goal of accumulate net reserves to comply with one of the points agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund. “In recent months there has been a huge increase in the trade deficit in real services, as a result of increasing overseas tourism and the rising cost of maritime freight,” Delphos analysts explain.

Matías De Luca, an economist at LCG, agrees: “The balance of travel and payments using credit cards is deteriorating. In October 2021, costs for this concept grew by 63% annually. (in dollars), while they grew 175 % and 236 % in January and February of this year, respectively.Between January and February, approximately US $ 400 million per month was consumed on travel and credit cards in dollars (when this number was approximately US $ 250 million last year). “

“At this rate, the deficit in travel and card consumption abroad is approximately US $ 4,000 million per year”added the economist.

For his part, Juan Pablo Albornoz, from Ecolatina, said: “In historical comparison, this is still not much of a problem: that the annual deficit of US $ 4 billion is lower than that registered in 2019 (which is historically expensive dollars) and represents little more than a third of the foreign currency outflow from tourism seen, on average, between 2013 and 2015 ”.

“The problem is due to the situation of reserves and the incentives generated by the dollar card. The BCRA is faced with one of the most difficult objectives in the IMF: the restructuring of reserves. That the depreciation of the dollar continues to grow for the tourism account is an alert sign, although still not as problematic as at other times, “he said.