MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: dollar in black market climbs to milestone 8 Pesos and 57% gap with the official rate

The Argentine Central bank is trying to regulate the increase

The black market dollar exchange rate in Argentina pierced the milestone 8 Pesos mark while the official rate climbed to 5.09 Pesos with the gap between the two markets reaching 57%. The other ‘cash’ option: buying Argentine shares in Buenos Aires and reselling them in New York climbed 10 cents to 8.46 Pesos.

According to money market agents in Buenos Aires genuine supply was limited and insufficient to address demand. Apparently the Argentine central bank intervened in the market at the start of operations selling dollars and again towards the end of trading but buying back greenbacks.

“The Central bank alternates purchases and sales along the trading sessions to regulate the increase of the US dollar, particularly for operations in the wholesale market that supplies importers”, said a report from a private bank.

Apparently the Argentine government is letting the official Argentine Peso exchange rate slide against the US dollar, expecting it to reach 6 Pesos by the end of the year as was announced informally by a top official from the Cristina Fernandez administration earlier this year, thus hoping to recover some of the lost competitiveness particularly for the manufacturing sector.

However the expansive monetary policy only further fuels the other markets precisely because of the ‘clamp’ policy that bans sales and savings in US dollars and an overall lack of confidence in Argentine rules for business.

Last February the US dollar reached the psychological barrier of 8 Pesos but then fell back to 7.92 Pesos, as the market was flooded by an unknown supplier, which traders identified as most probably the Central bank.

In a further restriction to US dollars’ access as of Friday 15 March, all Argentine banks and issuers of credit cards must have previous authorization to reimburse funds spent in gambling be it in casinos, lotteries, horse racing, sports’ betting or through web sites for poker or other forms of gambling.