“The purpose of the bank is to promote, to the extent of its powers and within the framework of the policies established by the national government, monetary stability, financial stability, employment and economic development with social equity.” Article 3, Organic Charter of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic.

General guidelines

During 2022, economic activity expanded by 5.0%, exceeding pre-pandemic levels and being very close to the previous maximum recorded in 2017. On the supply side, the service-producing sectors showed the greatest dynamism. Among the components of aggregate demand, the growth of investment stood out; The average investment rate stood at 21.2% during 2022, the highest value since 2011. The unemployment rate reached the lowest value since the beginning of the new series in 2016.
In a more dynamic macroeconomic environment, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and its impact on commodity prices boosted inflation on an already high inertia during the first part of the year. When the effects of this event began to dissipate towards the middle of the year, volatility in local financial markets increased, resulting in an increase in exchange rate uncertainty and inflation expectations. All this led to a further acceleration in inflation. In the last months of the year, the rate of price increases moderated, although it prevailed at high levels.
The BCRA was adapting its strategy to the prevailing economic conditions, within the framework of the 2022 monetary policy guidelines published in January (https://www.bcra.gob.ar/PoliticaMonetaria/Politica_Monetaria.asp).
At the beginning of the year, policy instruments were reconfigured and the monetary authority raised interest rates on several occasions to gradually bring them to positive levels in real terms, with the aim of guaranteeing exchange rate and financial stability. This action was complemented by a deepening of coordination efforts with the Ministry of Economy of the Nation for the construction of an interest rate curve for public instruments. The BCRA used its capacity to intervene through open market operations, in order to promote greater liquidity, depth and transparency of the sovereign debt markets, tending to greater financial stability.
In this scenario, the National Treasury was able to channel its financing needs through the market and together with the deficit reduction policy, the BCRA’s monetary assistance was among the lowest in recent years, representing 0.8% of GDP.
In a context of lower demand for the monetary base, in the face of regulatory changes and the increase in interest rates, the expansion of liquidity was channeled into sterilization instruments. Thus, in the second half of the year, an increase was observed in the balance of interest-bearing liabilities, which ended 2022 representing 9.8% of GDP, 0.9 p.p. below the maximum of 2017.
With regard to exchange rate policy, the BCRA continued to gradually adjust the crawl rate within the framework of the current managed floating regime, in order to maintain adequate levels of external competitiveness. Likewise, various regulatory modifications were implemented in foreign exchange matters, which sought to allocate foreign currency efficiently. In this way, it sought to strengthen the position of International Reserves
, based on the genuine income of foreign currency from real flows.
Finally, in the area of credit, the BCRA continued to pursue a policy focused on productive development. The Financing Line for Productive Investment continued to be the main financing vehicle
for MSMEs.