The Secretary of Agriculture, Juan José Bahillo, referred to the versions that arose after the fall of the Central Bank’s reserves
By iProfessional
02/18/2023 – 1:07 p.m.
The Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Juan José Bahillo, confirmed that the possibility of implementing a new soybean dollar “is not on the agenda” of the national government.
“We have on the agenda to try to find some palliative measures for some regional economies such as pears, apples and wine. In the economic team we are analyzing that, we’re not talking about a soy dollar“, the official remarked.
“I have not heard and a new soybean dollar is not on the agenda for which officials of the Ministry of Economy meet weekly. There is nothing, but each one can make the interpretation they want, each one is free to do so and I respect that,” he added.
The version about a new edition of the soybean dollar, whose exceptional settlement mechanism was applied in September and December of last year, gained strength before the fall of reserves of the Central Bank.
What’s more, the Central Bank carried out this week the largest sale of dollars for only one day since the end of 2021: it had to part with US$292 million in the exchange market, of which almost 90% corresponded to advance payments for energy imports.
The impact of the drought generated “a first loss” in crops, the minister said in a radio dialogue, and gave an example: “We went from 22 million tons to 13.4 million tons in the case of wheat.”
Juan José Bahillo confirmed that the soybean dollar “is not on the agenda” of the Government
“We are cautious regarding the estimate in monetary terms. We have to see how the crops evolve and also the prices, because there may be some compensation there, but undoubtedly we are not going to have the volumes we had in previous years. This is undeniable. Also the drought has hit livestock producers and dairy farmers hard,” he explained.
The BCRA sells more dollars, how much did it sacrifice in the week?
The reserves remained under tension this week due to the incessant trickle of foreign currency that occurs through the daily sales of the Central Bank in the official exchange market. The monetary entity added in the week a negative balance of US$470 million.
The deterioration deepened last Wednesday as a result of the anticipated payment of energy imports for US$262 million. That day, the BCRA closed with a red of US$292 million, the highest daily sale since November 2021. In addition, the shortage of supply continued due to lower income from agriculture due to the fall in the wheat harvest due to the impact of the drought, and the settlement advance through the soybean dollar 2 in December.
In terms of foreign currency income the outlook does not look encouraging, since the Grain Exchange estimated in the week that, if current conditions continue, the fall in agricultural exports would reach US$10,000 million this year (11% of total exports of US$88,446 in 2022 million), but in a scenario of deepening drought it would rise to US$14,000 million. If eventual early frosts in the core zone were added to this -as could happen this weekend-, the loss would amount to US$18.3 billion.
Analysts warn that with this week’s currency drain, the stock of net reserves fell and is increasingly moving away from the quarterly goal promised to the IMF for the first quarter, which stipulates to accumulate US$500 million and thus reach an amount of US$7,700 million.
