The surplus of last January is now far away, the last since 2011. As of February, foreign trade in services returned to negative territory, draining the resources of the monetary entity.
The balance of the Central Bank Exchange Balance Services (BCRA) account was re-registered deficit in Aprilfor the third consecutive month, for 183 million dollars. So in the last quarter it accumulates an imbalance of US$573 million and so far this year of US$489 million, thanks to the oasis of January when there was an almost historic surplus of US$84 million because the last one had been in December 2011 for US$43 million. It is worth remembering that last December the Services deficit had sharply adjusted from levels of US$700 million per month to only US$20 million as a result of the adjustment of the external sector.
What happened last April? The deficit was explained by the net expenses for travel, tickets and other card payments for US$335 millionfollowed by those of Freight and insurance for US$74 million and for US$25 million corresponding to the Others concept. As usual in recent years, This result was partially offset by net revenues from Professional and Technical Business Services of US$251 million..
It should be noted that part of these statistics are “they get dirty” Because exporters can settle up to 20% of their external sales of services through the stock market via the Export Increase Program (PIE), therefore that portion of the income does not appear in the exchange market statistics and exchange balance. Of course, there is an exception to this and it is that of those collections that enter and are deposited in local accounts in foreign currency for subsequent settlement in the securities market, which are recorded as exchange operations, with no net effect on the securities market. changes.
On the other hand, the adjustment measures implemented since last December plus the recessionary impact are also reflected in tourism exchange where Gross travel and ticket revenue increased 62% year-on-year to $241 million. It is worth remembering that these income occurred within the framework of the BCRA regulations of the end of 2022 that exclude the requirement of settlement in the exchange market for the income of funds with non-resident cards for charges for tourist services and for passenger transportation. . The idea of this regulation was precisely to allow recipients to apply a higher exchange rate to card consumption in the country by non-resident tourists.
Fall in expenses and reduction in income
The balance for the first quarter shows that the improvement in the services account, compared to what was recorded a year ago, is the result of the drop in gross expenses, especially in freight and insurance, which was partially offset by the reduction observed in income.
In this sense, it is observed that In the accumulated first quarter, the deficit fell 82% year-on-year due to the combination of a 2% year-on-year drop in gross income to US$2,644 million and a 43% drop in gross expenses to US$3,132 million. On the gross income side, those from Travel, tickets and other card payments stand out, growing 61% year-on-year to $962 million, while those from Business, Professional and Technical Services fell 19% to $1,601 million and related with freight and insurance up 43% to $82 million. While on the side of gross expenses, the largest drop corresponds to Freight and insurance with 82% of $243 million, followed by Business, professional and technical services with 46% of $872 million and those linked to Travel. , tickets and other card payments with 18% au$2,017 million.
For their part, primary income operations represented a net outflow of US$290 million, mainly due to net interest payments of US$276 million, while gross interest payments from the Government and the BCRA added up to payments of US$276 million. s168 million, of which US$149 million corresponded to interest payments to international organizations (excluding the IMF) and US$19 million to other government interest payments, while the private sector made gross transfers of US$144 million. Additionally, gross outflows of profits, dividends and other income abroad amounted to US$14 million. Regarding secondary income operations, they represented a net income of US$12 million.
A topic to take into account from Maywill be the impact of the authorization to participate in the subscription of BOPREAL to legal entities that would like to distribute profits and/or dividends to non-resident shareholders -require prior approval to make transfers abroad- which involved subscriptions for US$1,682 million through this mechanism.
Source: Ambito
