MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US dollar in Argentina reached 10 Pesos ahead of Sunday's mid-term election

Argentines despise “US imperialism” but love dollars to protect the value of their assets

The US dollar in Buenos Aires reached on Tuesday 10 Argentine Pesos (buying price) and 10.05 pesos (selling price) in the informal market, 15 cents higher compared to its last closing price, pushed by the tourist sector, and as the government crackdown on the so called city “exchange caves” eased up.

The “blue” dollar at 10.05 Argentine Pesos for buyers represents a record high in more than 5 months, and just a few days ahead of Sunday's mid-term election.

Meanwhile, the US dollar closed at 5.82 (buying price) and 5.87 (selling price) at Buenos Aires city banks and exchange offices after its price jumped on Monday. The dollar in the official market accumulates am 18.9% hike so far the year.

However, market experts doubt the value of the dollar will remain that high since late Tuesday the Minister of Domestic Commerce, Guillermo Moreno sent out teams of inspectors to the so called 'exchange caves' to intimidate operators and thus bring the price down.

The Argentine government strategy has been to keep the value of the greenback flat in banks and money exchange houses ahead of Sunday's ballot, so that voters won't have a motive to protest. The government is also concerned about the Central bank international reserves that have dropped to 34.1bn dollars.

Precisely the intervention of the Central bank helped to keep the official rate of the US dollar at 5.82 Pesos (buying price) and 5.87 Pesos (selling price), for which it had to sell 40 million dollars.

So far this year the sale of dollars from exports of grains, oilseeds and other products from the oil industry reached 19.2bn dollars, which is 4.4% higher than in the same period a year ago.

Expectations in Argentina are that following Sunday's ballot, the purchase of dollars to travel abroad is going to be even tougher than currently, and thus the rush to buy and force the record price.