Exchange maze: what are the dollars that coexist in the daily economy

A judge recently faced this dilemma: in a lawsuit for breach of a dollar contract and the inability of the defendant to obtain the bills to fulfill his part, established that the debt was paid in pesos, but at the MEP exchange rate to be able to compensate the creditor, but without damaging him with the exchange difference resulting from the gap.

The National Commercial Court n. 3 decided at the beginning of August “to adopt the MEP dollar as an exchange rate to convert the obligation assumed by the accused into pesos, because it is a mechanism that allows the legal and unlimited acquisition of the dollar, consisting of the purchase of a bond that I quote in pesos but is convertible into dollars and can be sold in that currency.

The ruling, signed by Judge Jorge Silvio Sicoli, serves as an example to demonstrate a reality: although the price of the blue dollar is in the minds of Argentines almost forever and before “little representativeness” that the official dollar price has in practice offered by Banco Nación as a reference, other exchange rates creep into more day-to-day operations.

In this regard, Belén Alsúa, Business Legal Manager of Expansión, explained: “Although our law recognizes freedom of form in the drafting of a contract, the most advisable thing is that, if applicable, the parties reach an agreement to define which exchange rate will govern the transaction “.

“The most challenging and complex thing, in many cases, is reaching an agreement what will be the exchange rate to useas sometimes it depends on the business in question and, on other occasions, on the ridiculous claims that one of the parties might have, “Alsúa added.

In a bi-monetary economy like Argentina, these grays on which exchange rate to take as a benchmark are seen in several sectors. While in some, such as the real estate, the price of the blue dollar is the boss, in other areas the equation is not that simple.

For example, Jorge Calvo, owner of the Galerías Witcomb, one of the oldest in the country, explained: “The sales of works of art are very depressed, so the values ​​are very low: the works are obtained for less than half of that. that was valid a decade ago. In this context, prices follow the price of the MEP dollar, which is a legal way of following what is happening with the price of blue. “

Even in the tourism sector, the stock market dollar is beginning to be seen as a reference value. Liliana Barck, CEO of Outtrip, a platform that unites travelers with tourism equipment suppliers, commented: “The adventure tourism equipment rental sector takes as a reference the MEP dollar for those international transactions, because it favors the exchange rate over the official dollar ”.

Nancy Multare, managing partner of Calzados Gusti, explained that in its sector there are a variety of cases, depending on the origin of the supplies, which are mostly of national manufacture. “For example, the suppliers of what we call a compound, which is a type of rubber we use to make the bases of footwear, which is sold in pesos at the value of the official dollar “

“Other suppliers use a” mix dollar “and the official dollar price was increased by 45% of the value at the beginning of the year. imported origin They were priceless, “Multare explained.

The same case is repeated in the graphics industry where historically prices have been regulated by the official dollar rate, but in recent months, due to the loss of the exchange rate update with respect to inflation, suppliers have gone to dollar “mix”.