1. Synthesis
• In April, there was an increase in the demand for pesos from the private sector, basically associated with the favorable behavior of time deposits. These placements grew by $3,660 million (4.1%), driven mostly by placements of more than $1 million. Thus, the year-on-year growth rate of private sector time deposits continued to be the highest in the post-convertibility period, standing at 36.2%, 3 p.p. above that observed last month.
• Regarding transactional money, the average balance of total means of payment in pesos (M2) stood at $268,830 million in April, registering a monthly increase of 1.8%.
• The Central Bank implements a policy aimed at controlling monetary aggregates, ensuring that their growth is compatible with the demand for money. Thus, the expansive effect of the Central Bank’s purchases of foreign currency and public sector operations was partially sterilized through the placement of LEBAC and NOBAC and the arrangement of pass operations.
• Loans in pesos to the private sector continued to accelerate their monthly growth rate, a behavior that began in March, once the summer period was over. In April, the average monthly balance of loans in pesos to the private sector increased 2.6% ($4,480 million), with increases in all lines, and reached a year-on-year variation of 40.8%. As expected for this time of year, in which tax maturities generate a greater demand for liquidity by companies, the growth in current account advances and, especially, in financing instrumented through documents was highlighted.
• The increase in deposits made it possible both to grant loans in pesos to the private sector and to increase the liquidity of financial institutions. Thus, for the total of financial institutions, the sum of cash, the current account at the Central Bank, net passes with the Central Bank and the holdings of LEBAC and NOBAC, averaged 42.2% of total deposits in pesos in April, reflecting an increase of 0.7 p.p. compared to March.
• While interest rates on time deposits remained broadly unchanged from March, interest rates on most loan lines declined in April, notably declines in consumer-related lines. The average rate of credit card financing registered the greatest negative variation (0.9 p.p.), standing at around 31.5%. On the other hand, the interest rate applied to personal loans stood at 29.2%, decreasing 0.2 p.p. in the month.
• The private debt market continued to show great dynamism. In April, 13 placements of negotiable obligations were registered for a total amount of $2,130 million. Two of the placements were made in foreign currency for a total of US$370 million, while the remaining eleven were integrated in pesos for a total of $620 million, the largest monthly amount of negotiable obligations placed in pesos in recent years.
