In a month in which the demand for money is seasonally high, private transactional M2 registered an expansion of around 8% in real terms. Correcting for seasonality, these means of payment contracted slightly (-0.1%). For its part, private M3 grew 1.6% at constant prices and without seasonality, due to an increase concentrated in interest-bearing demand deposits, and ended at around 13.1% in terms of GDP, a value above that of December 2024 and lower than the average for the period 2004-2025.
The Monetary Base remained without major changes in the average monthly variation, with a decrease in bank reserves that was offset by the increase in the circulating currency held by the public. The current account of the entities in the BCRA was impacted by the decrease in the minimum cash requirement that can be integrated in pesos that began to take effect in December. At constant prices and adjusted for seasonality, the Monetary Base registered a contraction of 7.6% and stood at 4.1% of GDP, 3.6 p.p. below the average record observed between 2004 and 2025.
Credit in pesos to the private sector registered an increase of 1.1% s.e. at constant prices, driven by commercial loans. In year-on-year terms, loans grew 29.6% at constant prices, and their share of GDP stood at 8.8%, 1.8 p.p. higher than the level at the end of 2024. When also including loans in dollars, credit reached 11.6% of GDP.
In this context, towards the end of the year the BCRA announced a new phase of the economic stabilization program. This stage of the program, characterized by the prospect of the remonetization of the economy, reconciles the maintenance of economic growth with price stability and the strengthening of the BCRA’s liquid reserves.
In terms of foreign exchange, the BCRA announced that the foreign exchange market will continue to operate under a floating regime between bands. As of January 1, 2026, the ceiling and floor of the floating exchange rate band will slide at the pace corresponding to the latest monthly inflation data reported by INDEC (with a lag of two months).
