MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

No installments in Argentine pesos for purchases in foreign currency

“It seems some opposition leaders try to install the idea that we are talking about something” other than financing trips

Argentina's Central Bank (BCRA) Thursday ruled that international travel tickets and other tourism items purchased through credit cards and whose values are expressed in US dollars or any other foreign currency but converted to Argentine pesos on the date of the operation cannot be split into monthly payments.

The measure aims at fostering domestic travel during the upcoming summer season thus adding to the post-pandemic economic recovery the country is reportedly going through.

The Central Bank's decision also applies to other tourist services abroad such as hotel rooms or car rentals.

Presidential spokeswoman Gabriela Cerrutti said it was a “momentary measure, designed to protect the economic reactivation, which is very strong.”

But the truth is the measure also came at a time when Argentina is still negotiating the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the repayment of a US $ 44bn loans taken under former President Mauricio Macri and for which foreign currency reserves need to be as safe as possible.

“We want to bring serenity regarding the BCRA resolution, which has to do with trips abroad and the possibility of paying them in instalments. The measure is momentary, it is punctual and specific. We are protecting the economic reactivation that is very strong,” Cerruti said.

BCRA's Communication “A” 7407 applies indistinctively to services retained straight from providers such as airlines or through intermediaries such as travel agencies, it was reported.

Cerrutti also explained that “it will be possible to continue traveling, in some cases, it will be necessary to wait for a few months, in other cases, it will be possible to finance it some other way..., but it seems some opposition leaders try to install an idea that we are talking about something else,” particularly from Macri's Juntos por el Cambio parliamentarian blocs.