© Archyde.com/AGUSTIN MARCARIAN
General view of the facade of the Banco Nación de Argentina in Buenos Aires. Argentina
BUENOS AIRES, March 3 (Archyde.com) – The Argentine peso in the alternative segments recovered on Thursday with a view to less pressure on the exchange rate once Congress approves the agreement with the IMF to refinance a large debt.
The South American country and authorities of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a final agreement to refinance a debt close to 45,000 million dollars with payments from 2026, both parties said in separate statements.
The Government of President Alberto Fernández will send the memorandum of understanding with the credit institution to the Chamber of Deputies from one moment to the next. The Congress will have to deal with the project and, once approved, it will be sent to the IMF directory to obtain its final endorsement.
“While waiting to be able to close and approve the agreement with the IMF, the operators are following the balance of the interventions and the rhythm of the ‘crawling-peg’ with attention on a daily basis, holding out waiting for the usual greater supply of foreign currency since the exporters in a while,” said Gustavo Ber, an economist at Estudio Ber.
He added that “even so, a greater calm has returned to the financial dollars – following a short-lived realignment from the lows – as tactical bets towards ‘carry-trade’ among operators are still prevailing.”
A resolution of the National Securities Commission ordered to relax from Monday the limitations in the operations of ‘cash with liquidation’ (‘CCL’) eliminating the weekly quota of 50,000 dollars nominal value for the liquidation of sovereign titles in that currency under local legislation .
* The weight in the informal or “blue” segment recovered 0.98%, to 204 per dollar for sale, following gaining a firm 2.43% the day before and thus returning to its maximum in eight weeks. This helped the gap fall back to 88.8% once morest the official value.
* At the end of January, the informal price of the currency marked a historical low of 223.5 per dollar for sale, given the urgency to cover portfolios.
* For its part, the interbank peso depreciated 0.09%, to 108.03/108.04 per dollar under the constant actions of the central bank (BCRA) with purchases or sales of dollars from its reserves to balance the liquidity of the market.
* Analysts said that part of the agreement with the IMF will serve to strengthen net reserves, which currently have a neutral or negative balance.
* The BCRA bought regarding 25 million dollars from the market this Thursday, in addition to the 40 million taken in the previous session, compared to a February where the monetary entity accumulated sales of regarding 180 million dollars.
* In the other alternative exchange segments, the currency in the ‘CCL’ stock market was quoted at 201 units and in the so-called “MEP dollar” it was at 196.2 per unit.
* “The exchange gap is beginning to shrink and we have to play with that factor. It seems that we are facing a mirror of what was the first half of 2021, with low emissions -almost zero-, rise in the official exchange rate and the gap shortening “, recalled Gonzalo Gaviña from Portfolio Personal Inversiones.
* It is expected that the parliamentary debate on the IMF issue will be once morest the clock given that Argentina faces a due date on March 22 for some 2,800 million dollars, which
might be avoided if the agreement is approved.
* Over-the-counter sovereign bonds ended with an average improvement of 0.2%, with JP. Morgan bank country risk rising six basis points to 1,856 units by 2000 GMT.
* “Remarkably, the impact of the news that the government would get an IMF deal on Argentine dollar bonds was surprisingly small,” said William Jackson, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.
* For its part, the leading stock index S&P Merval improved 1.45%, to a provisional close of 91,558.04 points, in an unstable market due to intrahour profit-taking.
* “The best expectations of an agreement with the IMF team were present once more,” said Javier Rava, director of Rava Bursátil.
* In the global context, the Russian invasion of Ukraine remained in the spotlight. A Ukrainian negotiator said on Thursday that the second round of ceasefire talks with Russia had not yielded the results Kiev hoped for, but that the sides had reached an agreement on the creation of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians.
(Reporting by Walter Bianchi; With the collaboration of Hernán Nessi; Editing by Jorge Otaola)
