The exchange gap climbed to 125%. Massa wants to stop the wave of dollarization. How were the peaks during the pandemic and after the departure of Guzmán
By Claudio Zlotnik
26/04/2023 – 09,03hs
“The collapse of the financiers is going to drag the blue,” he wrote Sergio Massa to his main collaborators on Tuesday night. The minister warned that he will continue to intervene in the market, despite the fact that the agreement with the IMF prohibits it, and has already announced that this issue will remain on the table when the renegotiation with the organization begins in the coming days.
The problem that Massa has is that the dollars in the Central Bank reserves they are very limited. Meager. His notice of intervention, in any case, could serve to cool the wave of dollarization. Even if it is in the very short term.
Nothing fundamental changed after the official interventionl yesterday afternoon, which helped to lower the prices of financial dollars (counted with liquidity and MEP), which had also come dangerously close to the border of $500.
Hay a red line that the Government does not want to cross.
The government on high alert
The first fence that fell in the last few hours was the currency Gap, that the Government intended to keep it below 100%. That was broken on Tuesday afternoon, when the difference between the blue dollar and the official wholesale dollar climbed to 125%. The second fence has to do with the “real” currency quote in the informal market.
In July of last year, when Martin Guzman he was ejected from the Ministry of Economy and the blue dollar climbed to $350, it was the second maximum during the ex-minister’s administration. The first had been during the pandemic: in October 2020, the blue peaked at $195.
The exchange gap climbed to 125%. Massa wants to stop the wave of dollarization. How were the peaks during the pandemic and after the departure of Guzmán
In real terms (discounted inflation), that $350 dollar from the middle of last year today implies a price of $540. Massa wants to prevent the gap from widening to that amount since, unlike a year ago, now the economy is in a worse situation.
Not too far to $540. That is why it is important, at this moment, if Massa manages to cool down the exchange market. The October 2020 peak dollar ($195 nominal) is equivalent to a current of $680.
“We are going to use all the tools of the State to order this situation and in this sense we notified the IMF of the restrictions that weighed on Argentina and we are going to change in the rediscussion of the Program“, promised the minister from his Twitter account.
An official source mentioned before iProfessional that the intervention in the market had been “strong”, but he could not confirm the version that emerged in the market that the BCRA sold US$60 million of the reserves, in addition to the well-known operations with dollarized bonds.
Today a new chapter of the crisis will be written.
