The operation will be to cover the needs of the Central Bank during this year. They do not rule out making the transfer by sea to reduce costs
By iProfessional
18/04/2023 – 20,15hs
To cover the needs of the Central Bank throughout this year, the Mint will seek to import some 250 million $1,000-peso bills, through a tender to buy currency paper from France and Malta.
These are two tenders published by Casa de Moneda to bring banknotes from Europe and that respond “to the fulfillment of the commitments and obligations that this entity has with the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA)”, they detailed.
The Government will import 250 million 1,000-peso bills
In both cases, the Open Purchase Order modality, established in article 17 of the Casa de la Moneda Procurement Regulations, is maintained. The call for tenders for the importation from the two countries does not imply that the entity is forced “to use the maximum totality of the tendered flights.” Eight of them would be from Malta and six from Paris.
From the Bloomberg Línea portal, it is contemplated a total purchase of 260 million $1,000 bills, of which 80 million will arrive from France and 180 million more from Malta. The numbers were not confirmed by Casa de la Moneda for reasons of confidentiality of the operation, but They clarified that the operation will cost approximately 32 million dollars.
“It is expressly prohibited to reveal productive values and volumes, but if it is feasible to clarify that Casa de la Moneda has all the powers to hire and subcontract the printing of banknotes in the existing markets, within the agreed needs and obligations”, explained from the organization headed by Ángel Mario Elettorre. And they added: “All these operations are framed within the policies of transparency and government ethics that govern the Casa de la Moneda. Achieving the best costs and free competitiveness in transport contracts”.
A particular piece of information has to do with not ruling out transfer part of the tickets by sea, which would reduce the value of the operation. “In the same line, Casa de Moneda Argentina, under its new management, with order and planning, seeks in the short term to replace all air transport services with a maritime service, which represents a significant reduction in costs,” they commented in this regard.
The Casa de la Moneda began an operation to import banknotes for more than US$30 million.
According to information published by Bloomberg Online, the purchase would begin in the first days of May.
Rain of pesos: how Massa does to issue despite pressure from the IMF
The margin of technical and dogmatic discussions, in the current economic plan, which is tied to the program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the reduction of the monetary issue is a pillar.
Massa accepted the position of Minister of Economy with this package already closed and, over the months, He was finding shortcuts to print pesos without failing the goal of 0.8% of signed attendance.
The concept of “temporary advances” and “profits” that were usually used to cover the fiscal deficit was mutating and the bills continued to leave the Central Bank, but to other destinations.
As a report by Porfolio Personal Inversiones (PPI) points out, strictly speaking, the accounting device began during the term of Martín Guzmán in May, when he sold DEGs (the IMF currency) from the Treasury to the BCRA for $322,000 million ( 0.4% of GDP) and then followed in June, with the rescue of the debt in pesos, with which avoided issuing maturities.
Massa repeated the experience of a “blue” issue during September and December with the “soybean dollar”: it issued the difference between the value of the official dollar and the special exchange rate of $200 and $230, respectively, which represented between 1.4% and 0.5% of GDP, as specified by PPI.
