MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Blue” dollar skyrockets past AR$ 1,000 threshold

For services such as Spotify or Netflix, the quotation stands at AR$ 731

The “blue” (a euphemism for the “black market” dollar) pierced the psychological AR$ 1,000 barrier Tuesday and closed the day at AR$ 1.010 after reaching AR$ 1.040 at some point, it was reported in Buenos Aires.

Meanwhile, the official quotation which exists only as a concept since almost nobody can buy dollars at that rate, closed at AR$ 367.18 on average among the main institutions within the country's banking system, and at AR$365.50 at the Banco de la Nación Argentina.

Argentina's Central Bank (BCRA) sold U$S 220 million Tuesday to keep the foreign currency from soaring any higher for a negative balance of US$ 290 million so far this week.

The AFIP tax bureau also decided Tuesday to unify the quotations used for transactions abroad through credit cards. It raised the personal property tax from 5% to 25% and eliminated the US$ 300 threshold after which an additional surcharge applied. Hence, the new rate stood at AR$ $731 and will be used for expenses abroad but also for streaming services such as Netflix or Spotify.

In this scenario, Economy Minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa pointed fingers against the “4 or 5 wiseguys” behind the strong rise and vowed not to stop until they were jailed. “I believe that at some point in Argentina, whoever speculates with people's savings and whoever generates extraordinary illegal profits through arbitrage must go to jail,” said Massa during a meeting with businessmen at the Argentine Chamber of Commerce (CAC).

“I can win or lose an election because that is secondary, but rest assured that between now and December 10 I will see to it that these 4 or 5 rogues are put in jail. And I am telling you so that we do not start later because they attack the market, the freedoms, until I do not see them in jail, I will not stop,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, other economists blamed Liberal Congressman Javier Milei, also a presidential hopeful, for the surge in the price of the US dollar. Milei, an Economics graduate, claimed that “the higher the dollar, the easier it will be to dollarize”, and insisted that “the peso cannot be worth any more than excrement.” He also recommended people not renew their fixed-term deposits in local currency.

Opposition politicians summed up Massa's attitude as follows. “It was all [former President Mauricio] Macri's fault until it became Milei's - they did nothing wrong.”

Lawyer Valeria Carreras filed a criminal complaint against Milei Tuesday for his remarks. Milei's “statements in two different media do nothing else but stir up a delicate national and international economic moment,” Carreras argued when filing incitement to violence charges.

Presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich -of Macrist allegiance- also criticized Milei's words. “He destroys your pocket and makes prices more expensive ... to justify his dollarization” plans, wrote the former Security Minister on X (formerly Twitter).