Objectives and plans
According to Section 42 of the Charter of the BCRA, “Prior to the beginning of each financial year, the BCRA shall publish its objectives and plans regarding the implementation of the monetary, financial, lending and foreign exchange policies. Should significant changes in its objectives and plans occur, the BCRA shall be required to disclose the causes thereof and the steps taken accordingly.”
2026
During 2026, the BCRA will develop policies in line with the main objectives of the economic stabilization program: advancing in the disinflation process, extending the scope of financial stability and laying the foundations for sustained economic growth. The progress achieved since 2024, in coordination with the National Treasury, allowed eliminating fiscal and financial dominance, resolving the inherited excess of monetary liquidity (overhang) and cleaning up the BCRA’s balance sheet.
The flexibility in the foreign exchange and interest rate markets incorporated in 2025—together with the sound fundamentals of the economic program, the strong support from the international financial community, and the credibility built around economic policy—have made it possible to broaden the scope of macroeconomic planning and create favorable conditions to move forward to a new stage. This stage of the program, defined by the prospect of remonetization of the economy, seeks to reconcile sustained economic growth with price stability and the strengthening of the BCRA’s liquid reserves. In this way, the BCRA’s policy will pursue two objectives: ensuring domestic monetary balance in line with a sustained reduction in inflation, and making further progress in external balance by strengthening its balance sheet through the accumulation of international reserves.
The elimination of the BCRA’s remunerated liabilities (financial dominance) and the low levels of monetization of the economy are initial conditions that provide ample room for action to achieve these objectives. Monitoring and controlling monetary aggregates will be of paramount importance in the next stage of remonetization. In this stage, money supply will align with the recovery in money demand, prioritizing liquidity provision through the accumulation of international reserves. To this end, the BCRA has stated that it will launch an international reserve purchase program starting on January 1, 2026.
This program will be consistent with the development of money demand and the liquidity of the foreign exchange market. In the first case, the BCRA will maintain a monetary policy bias to avoid sustained sterilization efforts as long as money demand evolves as expected. As for foreign currency liquidity, the daily operational volume will initially be in line with the 5% share of the volume in the forex market. Complementarily, the BCRA may carry out block purchases that could otherwise affect the proper operation and stability of the market.
A key element in this process will be a parallel process of recovery of access to international debt markets in order to refinance the National Treasury’s principal maturities. This process, together with greater external market financing for companies, will allow the reserve purchase flows to translate, on this occasion, into an increase in the BCRA’s stock of international reserves, insofar as these reserves are not required to meet principal and interest repayments.
The calibration of the monetary policy will depend on the evolution of inflation, its interaction with economic activity, and the financial conditions shaping money demand. As long as observed inflation remains above global inflation, the BCRA will maintain a contractionary monetary bias relative to the estimated trend of money demand outlined in its 2026 Monetary Program.
The BCRA will continue using conventional and prudential tools for managing the amount of money derived from the reserve purchase program: open market operations and repurchase agreement operations. Reverse repo transactions with financial institutions will be arranged daily at the interest rate set by the BCRA, on the basis of the levels observed in the secondary market for the National Treasury bills capitalized in pesos (Letras del Tesoro Nacional Capitalizables en Pesos, LECAPs). The repo facility window will remain operational under the current restrictions on eligible amounts and maturities. The interest rate on repos will be set by the BCRA, applying an additional margin over the prevailing rate in the secondary market for short‑term LECAPs.
Regarding the foreign exchange regime, the forex market will continue operating under an exchange rate band regime. As from January 1, 2026, the ceiling and the floor of the floating exchange rate band will be adjusted each month according to the latest monthly inflation figure published by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, INDEC) (i.e., with a two-month lag, T-2). The exchange rate bands will keep limiting the risk of extreme and abrupt movements in the exchange rates.
Moreover, the BCRA will further make progress towards normalizing bank minimum reserve requirements policy, acknowledging its impact on monetary balance and financial intermediation. Any adjustment will be implemented in a way that ensures consistency with price stability and credit recovery.
With the aim of enhancing transparency and communication of the monetary scheme, the BCRA will resume the publication of its quarterly Monetary Policy Report (IPOM) starting in January with the one corresponding to December 2025. This report will systematically present the BCRA’s analysis of the domestic and international economic contexts, inflation dynamics and prospects, and explain the rationale behind monetary policy decisions in more detail.
In addition, it will further analyze specific, technically complex topics, with a deeper quantitative analysis to facilitate a better understanding of the development of monetary policy and its relationship with overall macroeconomic balance and the formation of private sector economic expectations.
As progress is made toward this new year’s objectives, within a framework of fiscal balance consolidation, the transition to a less regulated economy with greater predictability is expected to benefit from the implementation of a set of structural reforms. These include the potential for labor modernization, reduction of the tax compliance burden, and the shaping of stronger economic institutions. If approved early, these reforms could provide a significant boost to productivity in 2026. In this context, they are not only expected to contribute to sustained economic growth led by private investment and the creation of new jobs, but also to consolidate the process of domestic stability and external strengthening of the economy.
Enhanced confidence in the peso and flexibility in the use of the dollar will facilitate the development of full competition between currencies. In this way, financial intermediation with the private sector would continue to expand for both non-tradable and tradable sectors. Together with the progress of investment under the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (Régimen de Incentivo a las Grandes Inversiones, RIGI), increased intermediation is expected to contribute to the capacity for economic activity expansion.
In order to preserve financial stability conditions, over the coming year the BCRA will continue calibrating its macro- and microprudential policy to adapt it to the distinctive features of the local context, in line with international best practices. As progress is observed in strengthening the balance in the foreign exchange market and in the Treasury’s smooth access to external markets, the BCRA may further ease foreign exchange restrictions on dividend stocks and repayment of commercial debts prior to 2023.
During 2026, the BCRA will consolidate recent developments in payment instruments and design and implement new electronic mechanisms that ensure secure household and corporate transactions, improving the experience and reducing costs for all users.
Within the framework of the 3.0 Transfers program, the BCRA will deepen efforts to reduce the incidence of fraud in instant payments, while making progress in consolidating the interoperability of the available tools. Likewise, it will examine new modalities of payment by transfer (pagos con transferencia, PCT) for online transactions to offer more secure and efficient solutions. Additionally, it will continue monitoring the implementation of the interoperability of card payments in both pesos and US dollars, promoting a homogeneous and transparent operation of currency competition throughout the local payment ecosystem.
The BCRA will further promote the use of electronic instruments such as time deposits, checks and electronic credit invoices, as complementary alternatives to paper-based instruments. In particular, it will adopt measures to encourage greater adoption of e-checks to replace paper checks. Also, it will monitor the development of the dollar e-check market as well as instant and deferred transfers involving sight accounts in dollars.
It will also introduce more improvements to the electronic credit invoice for MSMEs (factura de crédito electrónica MiPyMEs, FCEM), strengthening its role as a payment and financing tool for small and medium-sized companies.
Throughout 2026, it will design and implement an instrument for collecting installments on loans channeled to households, available to both non-financial credit providers and financial institutions. The development will take into account the experience gained in recent years and similar products used in other countries, adding the necessary security measures to prevent abuse, as observed in the past.
In line with the measures taken by the end of 2025, the BCRA will continue searching for greater efficiency in the collateral posted by financial institutions for the low-value automated clearing house (cámara electrónica de compensación de bajo valor, CEC-BV), simplifying processes and optimizing the use of resources.
At the same time, the information available to the BCRA on means of payment in Argentina will be expanded, working on efficiency and security improvements in the reception and handling of data. This will enable the ongoing strengthening of the national payment system oversight, furthering compliance with the applicable regulations.
Thus, throughout 2026, the BCRA will continue supporting the implementation of the public policies promoted by the National Government that are reflected in the national payment system, thus advancing in the development of a fully interoperable, digital and reliable payment ecosystem, capable of responding to the needs of users, stores and financial institutions in an increasingly dynamic and efficient bimonetary environment.
Finally, in 2026 the BCRA will further advance in the implementation of the Open Finance System, through the creation of technical groups that will devise the required infrastructure, and will seek to consolidate and develop its educational programs further, using the BCRA Campus to extend its reach to provinces and new audiences.