BCRA Updates Monetary Policy Rate

The Board of the BCRA has decided today to raise the monetary policy rate by 300 basis points. This way, the APR on 28-day liquidity bills (LELIQs) has risen from 78% to 81%.

Simultaneously, in order to maintain the incentive to savings in pesos, the BCRA has raised the minimum limits of interest rates on natural persons’ time deposits. The new floor for time deposits up to ARS10 million is 81% APR and for all other time deposits, 72.5% APR. Moreover, this measure is in line with the short-term interest rates on debt instruments issued by the National Treasury.

In March, the 7.7% change in the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) was boosted by significant acceleration in seasonal prices and regulated prices. A lower increase was seen in both the core category (7.2%) and the core category that excludes meat and by-products (6.5%).

The BCRA will keep on monitoring the development of the general level of prices, the forex market dynamics, and the monetary aggregates to calibrate the interest rate policy.

April 20, 2023