Executive summary
In March, the BCRA bought USD 1,671 million in the foreign exchange market, while customers and entities sold USD 1,130 million and USD 487 million, respectively. On the other hand, the BCRA made net payments through the Local Currency Payment System (SML) for USD 54 million.
The “Non-Financial Private Sector” was a net seller of foreign currency in the foreign exchange market (USD 1,074 million). Within this group, the “Oilseeds and Cereals” sectors (net sales of USD 2,166 million) and the “Real Sector excluding Oilseeds and Cereals” (net sales of USD 1,222 million) were the main net suppliers of foreign currency.
For their part, “Individuals” made net purchases of foreign currency for USD 2,470 million, mainly explained by current expenses (USD 1,300 million), while about USD 600 million constituted savings in foreign currency in local accounts and about USD 100 million were allocated to the formation of foreign assets.
In what was the exchange balance of March, a deficit of USD 88 million was recorded in the current exchange account. This result was explained by the net outflows of the “Primary income” (USD 1,321 million) and “Services” (USD 522 million) accounts partially offset by the net income of “Goods” (USD 1,737 million) and “Secondary income” (USD 17 million). In turn, the foreign exchange financial account was in deficit by USD 2,255 million in March. This result was explained by the deficits of the “Financial Sector” (USD 1,742 million), the “National Government and BCRA” (USD 1,044 million) and “Other Net Movements” (USD 113 million). These were partially offset by net income from the “Non-Financial Private Sector” (USD 643 million).
The BCRA’s international reserves decreased by USD 3,514 million in March, ending the month at a level of USD 42,052 million. This result was explained by the fall in the foreign currency holdings of the entities in the BCRA (USD 2,669 million), by the decrease in the price in US dollars of the assets that make up the reserves (USD 1,189 million), by the net cancellation of principal and interest to international organizations (USD 1,108 million) and BOPREAL (USD 1,005 million) and net payments made by the BCRA through the SML (USD 54 million). These movements were partially offset by the purchases of foreign currency in the foreign exchange market by the BCRA (USD 1,671 million) and the income from new issues of the National Government in the local market (USD 662 million).
