Informe de Evolución del Mercado de Cambios y Balance Cambiario

We present a new edition of this monthly publication, corresponding to December 2025, which analyzes the evolution of purchases and sales of foreign currency made by entities with clients through the foreign exchange market.

Executive summary

In December, the entities sold USD 745 million in the foreign exchange market, USD 585 million to their customers and USD 224 million to the National Treasury. For its part, the BCRA made net payments through the Local Currency Payment System (SML) for USD 64 million.

The “Non-Financial Private Sector” was a net buyer of foreign currency for USD 978 million in the foreign exchange market. Within this group, “Individuals” had the largest sectoral net purchase of foreign currency for USD 2,793 million, mainly due to net purchases of non-specific purpose banknotes for USD 2,186 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.

On the other hand, the “Oilseeds and Cereals” sector recorded net revenues of USD 1,139 million, largely explained by its result under the heading “Goods”. In turn, the “Real Sector excluding Oilseeds and Cereals” recorded net sales of USD 632 million, mainly explained by net income from “Debt, FDI, portfolio and other operations” of USD 1,043 million.

In what was the exchange balance of December, a current account deficit of USD 1,565 million was recorded, mainly explained by the net outflows of the “Primary income” and “Services” accounts for USD 1,243 million and USD 771 million, partially offset by the net income of “Goods” and “Secondary income” for USD 426 million and USD 24 million. respectively. In turn, the foreign exchange financial account resulted in a surplus of USD 1,505 million. This result was explained by the surpluses of the “National Government and BCRA” and “Other Net Movements” of USD 1,709 million and USD 1,204 million, partially offset by the net expenditures of the “Financial Sector” and the “Non-Financial Private Sector” of USD 1,011 million and USD 398 million, respectively.

The BCRA’s international reserves increased by USD 832 million in December, ending the month at a level of USD 41,167 million. This result was mainly explained by the placement of a new National Treasury bill in dollars for USD 910 million. After almost eight years, Argentina returned to the foreign currency financing market with the objectives of partially covering external debt payments, allowing the accumulation of reserves and contributing to the reduction of country risk.

In turn, there was an increase in international reserves due to the net disbursements of loans from international organizations for USD 714 million, for the purchases of foreign currency in the foreign exchange market by the National Treasury for USD 224 million and for the increase in the price in US dollars of the assets that make up the reserves for USD 891 million. These movements were partially offset by the net cancellation of principal and interest by BOPREAL for USD 1,013 million, by the decrease in the foreign currency holdings of the entities in the BCRA for USD 920 million and by the net payments made by the BCRA through the SML for USD 64 million.