Some 843,000 people bought dollar bills in August for around US$550 million, of which some US$366 million were for expenses with cards in foreign currency and US$168 million were used for hoarding. (savings dollar). In total, they acquired banknotes for US$171 million (2% less than in July and 33% less year-on-year) and made sales for US$3 million, according to the Central Bank (BCRA) Exchange Market Evolution Report. .
The Expenses with the tourist dollar and Qatar totaled US$728 million in the eighth month of the year, which meant an increase of 4% compared to the previous month and a drop of 8% compared to August 2022.
For its part, Gross income from trips and tickets totaled US$180 million, 378% more than the same month of the previous year. And the BCRA indicated that “said increase occurred within the framework of what was established by Communication “A” 7630, of November 3, 2022., in which it was resolved to exclude from the settlement requirement in the foreign exchange market the income of funds with non-resident cards, charges for tourist services contracted by non-residents and charges for transportation services of non-resident passengers. This allows recipients to apply a higher exchange rate to card purchases in the country by non-resident tourists.
The trade balance and the BCRA dollars
The Payments for imports of goods in August were US$4,095 million, 34% below the same month of the previous year. It should be noted that at the end of July the application of the PAIS tax was established for a large part of imports of goods with a rate of 7.5% (with the exception of fuel, medicines, and supplies linked to the basic basket, among others).
Of the total payments for imports of goods observed in August, 89% were made deferred, 6% as demand payments and the remaining 5% in advance.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that on July 24, the National Government launched the 4 soy dollar, which increased the exchange rate at which agricultural exports are settled to $340, while new eligible products were incorporated (among them corn) and will be valid until August 31.
In this frame, During the month of August, the oilseed and cereal sector settled some US$1,958 million and the income from collections of exports of goods from the rest of the sectors totaled US$3,325 million.showing a year-on-year drop of 19%, while in the accumulated year they exhibited a year-on-year reduction of 5%.
This is how the Central Bank accounts looked
Finally, with regard to the operations of The foreign exchange financial account of the Government and the BCRA resulted in a surplus of US$4,807 millionmainly thanks to gross disbursements from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for US$7,321 million (5,500 million SDR), partially offset by gross capital payments to the organization for US$915 million (688 million SDR), disbursements for loans from other international organizations for US$904 million and for other net cancellations of financial debt for US$867 million.
Thus, the BCRA’s international reserves increased by US$3,727 million in the month and ended at US$27,818 million. This increase was mainly explained by IMF disbursements and BCRA purchases in the exchange market.
Source: Ambito
