The exchange rate variables were out of adjustment and may produce harmful incentives for the Central Bank’s reserves. ORA typical maneuver of the City of Buenos Aires, the “dollar purée”, was strongly encouraged by the soaring of the free dollar that took that price to 345 pesos.
With years of foreign exchange obstacles in their lives, Argentine savers have learned many resources to seek to make a difference in times of exchange uncertainty. Purée, the purchase of dollars in the official market for subsequent resale in the informal market, is one of them. And in the last few hours it has become more than tempting, beyond official efforts to limit it.
The gap that separates the dollar that savers pay when they buy for hoarding purposes has become enormous. It jumped to 53% this Friday, after months of being almost zero. As close as last June 10, that difference was just 0.2%.
This gap occurs because the advance of the official dollar keeps the dollar for savings -the retail price plus a 65% surcharge for PAIS Tax and withholding on account of Earnings and Personal Assets- in the $224 according to the price of Banco Nación. That price, which little more than a month ago was less than $1 difference from the free dollar, did not follow the rise of the informal dollar and became a distance of 120 pesos.
Thus, the maneuver of the “puree” – penalized by the Foreign Exchange Penal Law but practically ignored in the caves of the City – became more attractive than ever.
Whereas hehe regulations in force allow individuals to buy up to USD 200 per month of “savings dollar”, at the current exchange rate, retailers need $44,880 to acquire the full quota. Those same USD 200 in bills are paid in the informal market $ 69,000.
That is the traditional maneuver yields a profit of $24,120 at today’s prices. The return of 53.74% in a single day is unmatched by any other financial asset.
This Friday, the Free dollar rises five pesos compared to yesterday’s close, at $345 for sale, one step below the record of $350 agreed in the first operations of the day. On a very volatile day, the currency was also able to fall back to touch 337 pesos.
So far in July, the ticket traded on the parallel market earns 107 pesos or 43 percent.
In the wholesale market, the dollar advances 20 cents, to 129.78 pesos. Thus, the exchange rate gap between the two prices stretches to 162 percent.
The rise in the informal dollar is not accompanied today by an advance in financial prices, as a result of a new regulation imposed yesterday by the Central Bank. The MEP dollar fell 2.52% to $313.68 per dollar and the cash with settlement fell 2.6% to 321.10 pesos.
The measure limits the holding of Argentine Certificates of Deposits representing foreign shares (Cedear) and liquid foreign assets to USD 100,000 at the time of requesting access to the MULC. Companies will have until August 19 to adapt to the provision.
Another of the instruments that were included in the standard is the acquisition of securities representing private debt issued in a foreign jurisdiction (New York Law Negotiable Obligations). Those who wish to maintain access to the MULC for the repayment of financial services and the cancellation of imports must not have acquired these instruments in the previous 90 calendar days and commit not to acquire them in the 90 days following the moment in which access to the MULC is required. .
The regulation is not retroactive, so companies that have acquired Negotiable Obligations before July 22 will not be affected.
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