Economy Minister Sergio Massa will announce this week a differential exchange rate for agricultural exports. As Ámbito learned, the date set for the officialization of the measure is this Wednesday. The settlement window will be thirty days for soybeans and ninety days for regional economies. They aim to accelerate exports, strengthen reserves and improve collection. They are analyzing new changes in the import system and awaiting the arrival of more foreign currency from the multilateral credit organizations.
The drought came to aggravate the main problem that the Argentine economy has been suffering for a long time, the lack of dollars. The data released by the Chamber of the Oil Industry of the Argentine Republic is eloquent: in March 2023 foreign currency income from agriculture represented US$1,228 million, when a year earlier it had reached more than US$2,802 million.
To mitigate the impact of the poor harvest, Massa will announce this week an “agricultural dollar.” According to high sources from the Palacio de Hacienda to Ámbito, it is a differential exchange rate, which would be around $300. It would be applied to soybeans, with a settlement window of thirty days and to the rest of the regional economies for ninety days. The expectation is that sales will accelerate in the second and third quarters. They expect “no less than US$4 billion” for soybeans and regional economies could attract an additional US$2 billion.
After a series of meetings between officials and the chambers that bring together the companies and producers in the sector, the announcement that Massa himself will lead is scheduled for this Wednesday. One of the officials working on the measure told this medium that for sectors that have weight in the domestic market, “price and supply will be guaranteed.” He also pointed out that part of the incremental amount collected will be used to “compensate the most affected links in the value chain.”
At the same time, changes for imports are being worked on. “We want to simplify the scheme, today there are different perceptions and the idea is that this converges towards the same point,” explained an official close to Massa when asked by this medium, referring to the exchange rates that were established, for example, for hiring artists from abroad or tourism.
Approved goals and more dollars on the horizon
Over the weekend, the IMF released the report on the fourth review of the agreement, which corresponds to the last quarter of 2022 and approved all the quantitative criteria. This released a disbursement of US$5.3 billion, the equivalent in Special Drawing Rights, which will mostly be used to pay the agency itself immediately. Only some US$2 billion will temporarily remain in the reserves.
In any case, this year Argentina should disburse some US$3,000 million net, although sources from the Monetary Fund acknowledged to Ámbito that this is one of the issues that could be reviewed in the modification of the program. So far, what has been specified is that the reserve accumulation goal will be modified, this was even reflected in the official statement.
During his tour of the United States, Massa also discussed other relevant aspects such as greater control of the over-invoicing of imports and under-invoicing of exports, the acceleration in the removal of energy subsidies for high-income households and the application of income policies such as the Fair Prices program.
With the current situation, one of the most relevant points that the Government takes away is the commitment by the White House to decisively support Argentina in multilateral credit organizations. As Ámbito was able to learn, this would imply that disbursements from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Andean Development Corporation are accelerated and that more than US$ 3,000 million enter before June 30 through this channel.
In the economic team everyone makes numbers. Apart from the arrival of foreign currency due to the measures that will be announced, they write down some US$ 4,000 million in savings in energy imports, due to the impact of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline and surpluses estimated for this season. Every dollar counts.
Source: Ambito
