BUENOS AIRES.- Argentina launched this Tuesday a ticket of 10,000 pesos ($11) which will be the largest denomination, surpassing the 2,000 pesos ($2.20) launched a year ago in response to the high inflation of the country and that precedes a 20,000 bill scheduled for the end of the year.
“He Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) puts into circulation the new 10,000 peso bill, which will be distributed progressively starting today through the network of bank branches and ATMs throughout the country,” the BCRA announced in a statement, which seeks to facilitate transactions and reduce “costs.” of acquisition of the finished banknotes”.
Argentina It has been going through an economic crisis for years that combines a restriction on external credit, rampant inflation that depreciates the currency – in March 2024 it reached 287% year-on-year – and a poverty rate of 42% of the population in December, according to the latest data. official, but higher than 57% since December according to the local Catholic University.
Inflation and constant currency devaluations in recent years have made current banknotes lose value and made it difficult for citizens, who must carry large amounts of currency with them. This led previous governments to remove the lowest bills from circulation: the two, five and ten pesos.
The new 10,000 peso bill has as its main image that of Manuel Belgrano (1770-1820), creator of the Argentine flag and commander of the so-called Northern Army during Argentina’s war of independence at the beginning of the 19th century.
The bill will lead the value podium for a short time, since the BCRA announced that the last quarter of the year will see the launch of the 20,000 bill.
Just last year the predecessor government of former president Alberto Fernández had to double the value of the highest bill in circulation – then 1,000 pesos ($4 at the exchange rate at that time) – to date.
The issuance of new high-denomination banknotes is repeated history in Argentina: in the last 140 years it changed the name of its currency five times and had a paper currency of 1,000,000 pesos in the 1980s during the last dictatorship. civic-military (1976-83), in the midst of a hyperinflationary context.
Source: With information from AFP
