These bonuses will be offered, starting next Tuesday the 26th, as vehicles for channel the demand for foreign currency from importers of goods and services with commercial debts for operations with customs registration or service actually provided until December 12, 2023.
Through the bidding of these new instruments, the BCRA will offer “an orderly solution to resolve the crisis generated by the accumulation of commercial debts of importers at unmanageable levels in the short term with the stock of available reserves, functioning as a bridge link with the accumulation of reserves associated with the trade balance surplus projected for the coming years.
Along these lines, importers will have the possibility of acquiring these instruments with the liquidity in pesos that they have at their disposal to meet their commitments abroad and in exchange they will receive a certain flow of foreign currency from the BCRA.
Context for the creation of the new instruments (BOPREAL)
The BCRA explained that “the provision of import permits and their associated access to foreign currency in a managed manner, in a context of high exchange rate gap, resulted in the accumulation of commercial debts of importers significantly above the historical average.”
In that sense, “the inconsistency between the amount of freely available international reserves and the accumulated amount of commercial debts forced the implementation of a new regime of access to the exchange market for foreign trade operations as of December 13, 2023, through a transparent and automatic access mechanism for the payment of imports”.
BOPREAL: description of the new instruments
The BCRA will offer a range of alternatives through three instruments, taking into account the impossibility of providing a single short-term solution for all importers.
The three instruments, which will be denominated and payable in dollars, may be acquired in pesos through a technical exchange ticket for the acquisition of foreign currency.
Through communication “A” 7925the BCRA established the requirements so that importers with debts abroad for the import of goods with customs registration prior to December 12, 2023 and for the import of services actually provided prior to the same date can access the primary tenders for these instruments.
In the same communication, it was established that Sales with settlement in foreign currency of securities acquired in primary bidding will not limit the holder’s access to the free exchange market to carry out other authorized operations.
Based on the projected flow of the trade balance for the coming years, the BCRA’s future commitments were staggered, distributing the delivery of foreign currency through a short-term bond (Series 2 due June 2025), a medium-term bond (Series 3 due May 2026) and a third bond with the maximum term established in Communication “A” 7918 (Series 1 due October 2027).
These future commitments, in turn, take into consideration the need to have foreign currency within the framework of the normalization of the flow of imports of goods and services established in Communication “A” 7917.
The BOPREAL Series 1 will be offered by the BCRA starting December 26, 2023. Series 2 and 3 of the BOPREAL will be offered in maximum amounts established based on the data provided by the register of commercial debts of importers prepared jointly by AFIP and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (the “Register of Commercial Debts with Foreigners”).
Source: Ambito
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