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 February.

Main aspects

The BCRA made direct purchases for a total of US$ 5,000 million from the National Treasury, which also sold US$ 293 million in the market. The latter, added to the sales of entities for US$ 115 million, and of the rest of the public sector organizations for US$ 55 million, were acquired by private sector clients through the foreign exchange market.

The volume traded totaled US$ 43,190 million (US$ 2,400 million on a daily average), a level that, although it showed a decrease of 17% compared to the previous month, registered an increase of 50% in year-on-year terms, a variation explained by the operations arranged between the authorized entities, and between them and their customers.

The operations of the current account of the foreign exchange balance were in deficit by US$ 964 million, basically as a result of the net outflows from the “Services” and “Primary income” accounts of US$ 1,272 million and US$ 146 million, respectively, partly offset by net income from the “Goods” accounts of US$ 436 million and “Secondary income” of US$ 18 million. This surplus in “Goods” was the result of income from export collections of US$ 3,829 million (year-on-year increase of 5%) and import payments of US$ 3,392 million (similar value to the same period in 2017).

The capital and financial account of the “Non-Financial Private Sector” registered net outflows of US$ 215 million, a value US$ 660 million lower than the net outflows recorded in the same month of 2017. Its main variations were the increase in revenues from purchase and sale operations in the secondary market of securities registered by entities for US$ 647 million and the decrease in expenditures due to the formation of foreign assets for US$ 521 million (an item that registered its lowest level of net outflow in the last eight months).

The operations of the capital and financial account of the “Financial Sector” resulted in a deficit of US$ 936 million, explained by an increase in the liquid foreign assets of the entities that make up the General Exchange Position (PGC) by US$ 447 million, by the use of funds for the primary subscription of securities for US$ 442 million and by the net cancellations of financial loans and debt securities for US$ 47 million

The foreign exchange capital and financial account of the “Public Sector and BCRA” resulted in a surplus of US$ 580 million, explained by the foreign currency income of the National Treasury from the issuance of Argentine National Bonds 2019 (denominated in pesos) for US$ 744 million.

With these movements, the BCRA’s international reserves decreased by US$ 515 million during the month of February, closing with a stock at the end of the month of US$ 61,509 million.