Main aspects
The BCRA made net sales in the foreign exchange market for US$ 4,731 million, which, added to the sales of the different public sector agencies for US$ 86 million, were acquired by private sector clients for US$ 3,726 million, and by banks and other exchange entities for US$ 1,091 million. The National Treasury and the BCRA did not carry out exchange operations directly with each other during the month.
The total volume traded in the foreign exchange market totaled US$ 49,683 million (about US$ 2,600 million on a daily average), registering an increase of 47% in year-on-year terms, explained by the increases in the volumes traded in all areas.
The operations of the current account of the exchange balance were in deficit by US$ 1,502 million. This result was explained by the deficits in the “Primary income” and “Services” accounts of US$ 1,114 million and US$ 911 million, respectively, partially offset by the results of the “Goods” and “Secondary income” accounts, which recorded net income of US$ 508 million and US$ 15 million. The result in “Goods” was the result of export collections of US$ 4,533 million (year-on-year fall of 2%) and import payments of US$ 4,025 million (year-on-year increase of 4%).
The capital and financial account of the “Non-Financial Private Sector” (NFPS) registered net outflows of US$ 3,939 million, basically due to the outflows recorded by the formation of foreign assets for US$ 2,055 million and the reversal in the flows of portfolio investments of non-residents destined for investments in pesos, which closed the month with a net outflow of US$ 1,345 million.
The operations of the capital and financial account of the “Financial Sector” resulted in a deficit of US$ 1,672 million, explained by the increase in the liquid foreign assets of the entities that make up the General Exchange Position (PGC) by US$ 1,474 million and by the use of funds for the primary subscription of securities for US$ 391 million. These flows were partially offset by the net inflow of financial loans and debt securities of US$ 193 million.
The foreign exchange capital and financial account of the public sector and BCRA resulted in a surplus of US$ 1,488 million, mainly explained by the foreign currency income of the National Treasury from exchange operations carried out abroad for US$ 1,140 million and by the liquidation of financial loans and debt securities for a total of US$ 557 million.
With these movements, the BCRA’s international reserves decreased by US$ 5,103 million during the month of April, closing with a stock at the end of the month of US$ 56,623 million, a level comparable to that observed at the end of 2017.
