Report on the Evolution of the Foreign Exchange Market and the Foreign Exchange Balance

We present a new edition of this monthly publication, corresponding to February 2026, which analyzes the evolution of purchases and sales of foreign currency made by entities with clients through the foreign exchange market.

Executive summary

In February, the BCRA and the National Treasury made net purchases in the foreign exchange market for USD 1,557 million and USD 2 million, while customers and entities sold USD 1,073 million and USD 456 million, respectively. For its part, the BCRA made net payments through the Local Currency Payment System (SML) for USD 30 million.

The “Non-Financial Private Sector” was a net seller of foreign currency for USD 709 million in the foreign exchange market. Within this group, the “Real Sector excluding Oilseeds and Cereals” was the main sector offering foreign currency in the foreign exchange market during the month, registering net sales of USD 1,579 million, mainly explained by net income from “Debt, FDI, portfolio and other operations” for USD 997 million and “Goods” for USD 639 million. In turn, the “Oilseeds and Cereals” sector recorded net sales of USD 1,408 million, largely explained by its result in the “Goods” category.

The “Individuals” made net purchases of foreign currency for USD 2,552 million, mainly of non-specific purpose banknotes for USD 1,954 million. It should be noted that part of these funds is deposited in local accounts or is later used to cancel purchases with cards in foreign currency and, therefore, does not increase the position of foreign assets of the private sector. For this reason, the purchase of banknotes and foreign currency is not equivalent to the formation of foreign assets. In the same way, part of the outflows for foreign currency, which mostly constitute transfers of local deposits abroad (exchange operations), are destined to the cancellation of external liabilities (for example, for payments of foreign commercial and financial debt or profits and dividends).

It is estimated that, of the USD 2,000 million outflow of banknotes and foreign currency without specific purposes (both from individuals and companies), about USD 900 million were used to pay for tourism expenses and others with cards, about USD 300 million were destined for imports and other obligations, while USD 600 million of foreign currency purchases were deposited in local banks. Thus, it is estimated that the outflows through the foreign exchange market that finally increased the position of foreign assets of the non-financial private sector in February were around USD 200 million.

In February’s exchange balance, there was a deficit of USD 115 million in the foreign exchange current account. This result was explained by the net outflows of the accounts “Primary income” (USD 1,322 million), “Services” (USD 741 million) and “Secondary income” (USD 12 million), partially offset by a net income of “Goods” of USD 1,959 million. In turn, the foreign exchange financial account was in surplus of USD 198 million. This result was explained by the surpluses of “Other Net Movements” (USD 633 million) and the “National Government and BCRA” (USD 461 million), partially offset by the net expenditures of the “Non-Financial Private Sector” (USD 773 million) and the “Financial Sector” (USD 122 million).

The BCRA’s international reserves increased by USD 1,063 million in February, ending the month at a level of USD 45,566 million. This result was mainly explained by the purchases of foreign currency in the foreign exchange market by the BCRA for USD 1,557 million, by the increase in the price in US dollars of the assets that make up the reserves for USD 968 million and by the income from the issuance of National Government securities for USD 251 million. These movements were partially offset by the cancellation of interest and charges with the IMF for USD 834 million, for net outflows from operations with international banks for USD 321 million, for the fall in the foreign currency holdings of the entities in the BCRA for USD 287 million, for the net payments of principal and interest to international organizations for USD 189 million and for the net payments made by the BCRA through the SML for USD 32 million.