In less than a month and a half there was a 6.7% outflow, from US$16,393 million on March 13 to US$15,289 million at the end of April
By iProfessional
06/05/2023 – 22,01hs
On March 14, the Government reported that inflation had risen 6.6% in February, above expectations. Thereafter the blue dollar began to rise, first gradually from $373 the day before.
On April 14, the 7.7% consumer price index (CPI) for March was released and the dollar began to jump from $394 to $495 two weeks ago. Now it’s $469.
But so much inflation and so much jump in the dollar has led to a strong outflow of deposits, from US$16,393 million on March 13 to US$15,289 million at the end of April, about US$1,104 million less, a fall of 6.7% in less than a month and a half.
Withdrawal of deposits: the reasons
“I imagine that clients must be afraid that the dollars deposited have no support“, they explain in one of the 20 largest banks in Argentina. “As the Central Bank loses reserves, then people, just in case, withdraw deposits,” they complement. The disturbing trend, but there have been moments with fewer deposits. The On November 22, there were US$15,271 million, which had even dropped to US$14,500 million last August, when Sergio Massa began his term as Economy Minister after the turmoil that led to the resignation of Martín Guzmán in that position and her temporary replacement by Silvina Batakis.
Savers are afraid that the dollars deposited will not have backing
To the current economic uncertainty, the main cause of the outflow of savings, is added in the background the fear of some analysts of Javier Milei’s rise in the polls and the more concrete possibility that Argentina will dollarize. “If someone says that their economic program is to set fire to the Central Bank, which is the entity that regulates the banks, and I would not have the money in a bank,” Emmanuel Álvarez Agis, of the PxQ consultancy, declared on April 17. Not only that: the economist Emilio Ocampo, who elaborates the dollarization plan to which Milei adheres, rescues in his writings the Bonex plan, through which bonds were delivered to dollar depositors in 1989.
