The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa revived his internships with the president of the Central Bank (BCRA), Miguel Pesce, by sending him this Wednesday night, on the eve of May 25, a letter asking the central banker to repeal Communication “A” 7720 by which the monetary regulator raised credits to those Producers who do not sell 95%, or have operated in the soybean dollar I, II and agricultural dollar programs.
The aforementioned standard entered date of April first of this year and extended until December 31 the provisions referring to the minimum rate for financing in pesos to clients with agricultural activity, except for those cases of clients whose total amount of financing in the financial system, considering the requested financing, does not exceed the amount equivalent to $ 3 million, and/or that prove that they do not have a collection of their soybean production greater than 5% of their annual harvest capacity.
Ultimately, he arranged an increase in financing rates for producers who retain more than 5% of their last harvest.
“Masa asks the president of the BCRA to repeal the rule that punishes producers for having soybean stocks, and to lower active rates,” he told Ambit the economic and business analyst Salvador Di Stéfano. And he wishes that “hopefully it will be carried out for the good of the producers, who are fused”.
It happens that Di Stéfano assures that the situation in the field is “critical at the moment” and, for this reason, he believes that “it would be very good if the regulation in question was repealed”. In this regard, he explains that grains are often stored in the field given that the rents are fixed in quintals of soybeans and ensures that they are not saved to speculate.
However, the standard was issued at the time with the aim of encourage the liquidation of soybeansto guarantee the entry of dollars to the BCRA reserves in a context in which many indicated that there could be some retention by producers to speculate with a possible greater devaluation of the peso going forward.
The problem is that, as some sources explain, ratifying what Di Stéfano says, many producers They use soybeans as a store of value. Thus, a possible solution to this problem, according to many, would be to distinguish the destination of the collected soybeans, which, in many cases, can be reserved for the rent paymentabove all, taking into account that almost 80% of local production is carried out in leased fields.
Likewise, Massa’s letter is sent in a context in which many claim that it is really the director Leando Cleri, the minister’s representative on the board of directors of the monetary regulator, who has strong decision-making power at this time there, so that some voices in the market consider that “It seems like a campaign gesture“, also taking into account the date on which it was sent.
However, many others deny these versions and assure that Pesce continues to be the strong man in the BCRA and, in fact, has the support of many members of the board of directors in his role.
News in development
Source: Ambito
