MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dollar “bluer than blue” ahead of Argentine elections

The exchange rate between the Argentine peso and the US dollar ranged anywhere between AR$ 348 and AR$ 1,065

Argentina's bewildering economy recorded this week a new first: an “official” quotation for the black market dollar, commonly referred to as “blue” in addition to a new “bluer than blue” for the few transactions actually carried out ahead of Sunday's elections and amid raids on “cuevas” (illegal currency exchange parlors). However, there was no Michael Jackson singing Randy Goodrum's hit.

Despite some media mentioning a price of AR$ 900 which would show a depreciation of the US money against the South American currency, closer looks at Buenos Aires' financial scene detected that there was not a single dollar available for less than AR$ 1,000.

“The parallel dollar market is virtually paralyzed due to the state of confusion and uncertainty generated in the last hours with the publication of a drop in the quotation when in practice no one is offering bills for sale,” Infobae admitted. But “no major operations are being carried out” since Wednesday, and most traders will not be operating until next week.

The value published daily by Reuters stood at AR$ 900 when it was frozen at 1.41 pm, an AR$ 5 drop from Thursday. However, in the streets, this value was practically non-existent. Some ultra blue cuevas spoke of between AR$990 and AR$1065, according to La Nación but there were no transactions, citing “problems in the [computer] system.”

“Each retailer set its own price,” a source was quoted by La Nación as saying. “The differences reached AR$125,” it added.

Meanwhile, government officials insisted that the exchange rate had fallen after the currency swap with China was announced. The official dollar closed at AR$348 /AR$368 (buy/sell) as the Central Bank (BCRA) sold some US$45 million for a total of US$140 million this past week.

The credit card dollar for operations abroad and streaming services such as Spotify or Netflix stood at AR$736.06.