Main aspects
The BCRA made purchases directly from the National Treasury for a total of US$ 3,000 million. For their part, the entities, together with the rest of the public sector agencies, sold US$ 500 million and US$ 430 million, respectively, which were acquired by private sector clients through the foreign exchange market. The volume traded totaled US$ 51,994 million (US$ 2,363 million on a daily average), a level that represented a new high in the history of the foreign exchange market, exceeding the level of the previous month by 4%, explained by two records of operations arranged between authorized entities, and between them and their customers.
The operations of the current account of the foreign exchange balance were in deficit by US$ 1,947 million, basically as a result of the net outflows from the “Services” and “Primary income” accounts of US$ 1,440 million and US$ 807 million, respectively, slightly offset by net income from the “Goods” account of US$ 281 million. This surplus in “Goods” was the result of export collections for US$ 5,025 million and import payments for US$ 4,744 million.
The capital and financial account of the “Non-Financial Private Sector” (NFPS) recorded net outflows of US$ 846 million, showing a decrease of US$ 1,137 million with respect to the values registered in the same month of 2017, whose main explanation was the reversal in the result of purchase and sale operations in the secondary market of entities with securities for US$ 1,126 million.
The operations of the capital and financial account of the “Financial Sector” resulted in a surplus of US$ 707 million, explained by a fall in the liquid foreign assets of the entities that make up the General Exchange Position (PGC) by US$ 640 million and the net income from financial loans and debt securities by US$ 188 million. partially offset by the use of funds for the primary subscription of securities for US$ 120 million.
The foreign exchange capital and financial account of the public sector and BCRA resulted in a surplus of US$ 9,092 million, highlighting the foreign currency income of the National Treasury from the issuance of International Bonds for US$ 9,000 million (five, ten and thirty years).
With these movements, the BCRA’s international reserves increased by US$ 6,969 million during the month of January, reaching an all-time high of US$ 63,906 million on 01/11/18, and closing with a stock at the end of the month of US$ 62,024 million.
