In April of this year, 799,000 Argentines bought dollar savings (official plus 65% tax) for a total of US$470 million, according to the Exchange Market Evolution Report published by the Central Bank (BCRA), which is released month by month. the entity. Of that amount, US$301 million were used to cover expenses with cards for consumption with non-resident providers, US$12 million below the total for March (7% less), and US$138 million were used for hoarding, U $S23 million less than in the previous month (a 16% drop MoM).
Thus, there is a slight drop in the number of buyers (with 134,000 fewer people) compared to March and also a reduction in the volume of 23 percent, which -according to analysts- would respond to a lower savings capacity on the part of the and, at the same time, a loss of competitiveness of the savings dollar once morest other exchange rates (especially the informal and the financial ones). In fact, the average purchase per month was US$179 per capita and, with a total of 26,000 sellers, sales were US$201 per person.
Expenses for travel, tickets and other card payments totaled US$507 million and, according to the BCRA, this occurs “in a context of gradual recovery of outbound tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to Iprofesional.
Export collections for US$7,393 million and import payments for US$5,990 million were recorded. Payments for imports of goods totaled US$5.99 billion, showing an increase of 25% compared to payments for the same month of the previous year, and, in a context of higher international prices for fuels imported by the country, payments of imports from the energy sector totaled US$796 million in the month, showing a year-on-year increase of 85%, although with a fall of 42% compared to the peak observed in March.
And a noteworthy piece of information from the report is the result of the “Oilseeds and cereals” sector, which basically refers to commodity exporters. Thus, the field totaled sales of foreign currency for collections of exports of goods through the foreign exchange market for US$3,909 million, with a year-on-year increase of 3% in a context of higher international prices for agricultural products.
