After several days of meager results, the new exchange scheme for soybeans allowed the BCRA to add a significant amount of dollars
By iProfessional
13/04/2023 – 18,40hs
After tense days in which the exchange scheme of the “agro dollar” at $300 did not seem to give results, finally the liquidations were activated with force this Thursday, which allowed the Central Bank to end the day with a net balance u$s332 million for strengthen reserves.
The liquidation occurred on the fourth day of validity of the scheme with which the Government will try to rebuild international reserves.
Through the Electronic Open Market (MAE), in the differential wheel for this purpose, operations for US$573.98 million were processed.
This greater influx of foreign currency created the conditions for the BCRA to be able to repurchase US$332 million (58% of what was received there).
The agricultural dollar allowed the largest purchase by the BCRA so far this year
The monetary authority thus achieved the largest recovery of “palpable” reserves due to interventions on the local market since the penultimate day of the previous stimulus plan for the supply of foreign currency, when it had acquired US$540 million.
Today the BCRA bought US$574 million at $300 and sold approximately US$242 million in the MULC. That results in a net purchase of $332 million.
The BCRA reserves are severely punished and the agricultural dollar brings some relief.
At the same time, it raises its loss for buying expensive what it later sells cheap to $28,533 million and triggers the monetary issue in this way to $128,733 million, according to economists.
Dollars arrive for a nervous market
The official repurchase came when the BCRA’s liquid reserves were setting new negative records and nervousness was invading the market. This explained the new rise in free dollar prices, the blue touched $400, both in its financial versions and in the one that it is agreed in “black”.
During the day, a new cut was made known in the estimates for the new coarse crop, which confirm that the impact of the drought would be more devastating than originally expected.
With the new estimate of the Rosario Grain Exchange (32 million tons for corn and 23 million for soybeans), there will be US$18.5 billion less due to the drop in exports of the three crops. It implies a 4% drop for the gross domestic product (GDP) only due to the effect of agriculture.
It was positive for the BCRA to have ensured this income, beyond the losses that it must write down again and the inflationary cost that it will surely bring when reactivating a peso issue engine that had come to function, on the contrary, as a vacuum cleaner for them in the last months.
Everything was recorded in a day in which it is confirmed that the BCRA accelerated the official devaluation of the peso, perhaps having verified that the inflationary inertia of the local economy is accelerating again.
Since last week the price of the dollar has risen at a rate of 6.3% per month.
