After various claims from economic actors, this Thursday the Central Bank confirmed that will launch a new denomination higher than the current one: the $2,000 billwhich “commemorates the development of science and medicine in Argentina and will feature the Malbrán Institute, and Dr. Cecilia Grierson and Dr. Ramón Carrillo, pioneers in the development of medicine in our country,” according to They explained from the BCRA.
Is new maximum denomination occurs after 5 yearssince the current paper with the highest value, the one for $1,000, which has the image of a baker, began to circulate on December 1, 2017.
This will be the new $2,000 bill announced by the Central Bank:
The issuance to the street of this new figure is estimated to be will take place in the second half of the year. And although it is not included in the official announcement, it is speculated that the issuance of a $5,000 paper is also contemplated.
This official decision responds to the demand of different economic sectors, which requested that a higher denomination be issued, due to the fact that a real “bottleneck” is created in banks and businesses, due to the fact that today a $1,000 represents less than $3 in the free space and it’s not even enough to buy a lunch, a kilo of cheese or a parking stay.
The cause of this is neither more nor less than the high inflation that constantly takes away the purchasing power of the pesos.. In fact, in 2022 it closed at close to 95%, and last January it was estimated to have reached 6%, according to economists from private consultancies.
Thus, more and more tickets of higher value are needed, progressively, to buy the same amount of products and services, so ATMs empty faster due to the limited capacity they have for the delivery of said units.
Another case is the logistics “bottleneck”, the use of more cash causes the businesses and banks must move and store more unitswith the higher cost and corresponding space that this implies.
The $2,000 bills will be released in the coming months, but experts doubt that this denomination will solve the problems of using cash.
The new $2,000 bill
According to information from the Central Bank, this new maximum denomination would be launched in the second half of the year. On the obverse of the bill will be the figures of Grierson and Carrillo, and on the reverse of the bill the building of the Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán National Institute of Microbiology is represented.
In the City, it was expected that the announcement would include bills of greater value than the $2,000 bill, because since the $1,000 bill was launched, accumulated inflation since then has exceeded 840%. In other words, today a paper of $9,400 would be required to equalize the purchasing power of that unit of the oven.
In other words, it would have been “more logical” for the monetary authority to decide throw papers of $5,000 and $10,000, to be able to match the inflationary rhythm.
Is that your own Survey of Market Expectations (REM) prepared by the Central Bank itself, based on a survey among various economists, showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) expected for all of 2023 is close to 100%. Fact that removes purchasing power from the bills in circulation.
One of the explanations is that the monetary authority in this “controversial” decision is looking for discourage the use of cashsince it is a way to legalize different operations of the economy and to lower the operating costs that using physical money implies.
In fact, in the same statement where the launch of the $2,000 bill was reported on Thursday, the BCRA clarified that it “promotes the use of electronic means of payment in transactions with innovative measures that allow its development from the Transference 3.0 program”.
Specifically, the monetary entity cites that immediate transfers had a year-on-year growth in December 2022 of 98.8% in quantities and 18.7% in amounts; and payments with interoperable QR transfers grew by 41.4% year-on-year as of December last year.
The last time the Central Bank issued a maximum denomination note was $1,000, on December 1, 2017.
“The transactional inconvenience is not exhausted in this multiplication of the units involved in each transaction, but also in the low value of the highest denomination billa situation that causes the exclusive use of the highest value bill due to the scant significance of the units of lower amounts”, concludes andres mendezdirector of AMF Economy.
Personalities honored on the $2,000 bill
According to the information published by the Central Bank, the new $2,000 note will have the National Administration of Laboratories and Health Institute Dr. Carlos Malbránwhich is a decentralized public body, created in 1893, whose fundamental mission is to participate in scientific and technical policies related to health aspects of the public sphere, especially to treat infectious diseases.
Important scientists such as Nobel laureates Bernardo Houssay and César Milstein worked at the Malbrán.
Another honoree is Dr. Cecilia Grierson, who was the first doctor in Argentina. She graduated in 1886 from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires. Grierson practiced as an obstetrician and kinesiologist, and she created the First School of Nursing in Latin America with a formal curriculum, she was also a founding member of the Argentine Medical Association. She also pioneered the idea of opening first aid rooms in different towns to help with primary care for the sick.
while the Dr. Ramon Carrillo He was a neurosurgeon, neurobiologist, sanitary doctor and the first Minister of Health of the Nation. This expert made a great transformation in the public health of our country from a social conception of medicine, because his thought was based on the fact that: “All men have the same right to life and health” .-
