Informe de Evolución del Mercado de Cambios y Balance Cambiario

This report analyzes the evolution of purchases and sales of foreign currency in the foreign exchange market, corresponding to August.

Main aspects

In August, the International Monetary Fund carried out the allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), providing financial assistance to member countries to mitigate the effects of the COVID19 pandemic. Within the framework of this allocation, Argentina received USD 4,326 million, which allowed the BCRA’s international reserves to increase by USD 3,599 million in the month. For its part, the BCRA made net sales in the foreign exchange market for USD 154 million.

The domestic and global economy continues to undergo a gradual recovery from the health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted both the level of global and local activity, trade flows and capital movements. In recent months, the BCRA has perfected foreign exchange regulations in order to promote a more efficient allocation of foreign currency. In this context, the clients of the entities and they bought USD 144 million and USD 10 million net in the foreign exchange market, respectively, which were sold by the BCRA. Likewise, the National Treasury made direct purchases from the BCRA for USD 537 million.

The real sector was a net seller of foreign currency for USD 540 million. Within this group, the main sector in terms of net sales in the foreign exchange market, “Oilseeds and Cereals”, recorded net revenues of USD 2,693 million, with a year-on-year increase of 79%, in a context of higher international prices of agricultural products. For its part, the sector’s FOB exports reached an all-time high in nominal terms in August, ranking above revenues from collections of exports of goods, which implies that the level of commercial debt of the sector was reduced in the month.

The “Real Sector excluding Oilseeds and Cereals”, on the other hand, was a net buyer in the foreign exchange market with a total of USD 2,153 million. The purchases were mainly intended to make payments for imports of goods and services, and interest payments.

The “Individuals” bought USD 289 million net, basically for expenses made with cards for consumption with non-resident suppliers and for treasury, for USD 131 million and USD 124 million, respectively.

The “Institutional investors and others” sector, both resident and non-resident, made net purchases in the month for USD 79 million.

The foreign exchange current account, which includes net flows from net exports of goods and services and primary and secondary income, registered a deficit of USD 301 million. This result was mainly explained by net expenditures on “Primary income” and “Services” of USD 527 and USD 388 million, respectively, partially offset by net income from “Goods” of USD 608 million.

The foreign exchange financial account of the “Non-Financial Private Sector” had a deficit of USD 285 million in the month, highlighting the net cancellations of financial debt for USD 265 million.

The operations of the foreign exchange financial account of the “Financial Sector” resulted in a deficit of USD 100 million, basically explained by the increase of USD 111 million in the liquid foreign assets of the entities that make up the General Exchange Position (PGC).

On the other hand, the operations of the foreign exchange financial account of the “General Government and BCRA” resulted in a surplus of USD 3,961 million, mainly explained by the income from the allocation of Special Drawing Rights of the International Monetary Fund