Luis Caputo confirmed that the BCRA took gold from the reserves and sent it to London

The Government confirmed this Friday that The Central Bank (BCRA) sent gold bars to England. Did the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputoin an interview on Friday, described the decision as “a very positive move by the Central Bank,” given that it considered that, in this way, it can obtain a return, unlike when it is in the coffers of the financial regulator.

In this way, although informally, because the Central has15 days to officially respond, he replied to the request for information made by Sergio Palazzo, deputy and general secretary of La Bancaria, the union that brings together workers from financial institutions.

In the letter, Palazzo asked the Government and the BCRA to explain whether On June 7 and 28, trucks carrying gold from the Lumil company left to transport the gold from the BCRA vault. to Ezeiza, where the They boarded the British airline British Airways to an unknown destination, although it is assumed that it was the Bank of England.

A response that confirmed “without confirming” the measure and the silence of the BCRA

Caputo defended his move by stating that “It is much better to have it guarded outside where they pay you something.” and, although he implied that the shipment was indeed made, he did not respond yes or no to the query. Likewise, even The position of the BCRA is yet to be known, as it has not commented on the matter.They barely give an institutional response.

“The BCRA received a request for access to public information from the Deputy and National Secretary General of the Banking Association requesting details on the administration of reserves as it relates to the gold belonging to the Bank and We are working on the response to that request.which will be provided as established in the regulations,” they limited themselves to responding to the query of this media in the building at Reconquista and Perón.

Many read this difference in the answers as a possible short circuit between the president of the BCRA and Caputowho, until now, functioned almost as one person. Rumors are beginning to circulate in the city that say that Santiago Bausili begins to demand its autonomywhich is recognized by the charter of the entity he heads. Some analysts also do not rule out that this is a staged act so that the minister can distance himself from this decision regarding gold in the future.

What the market says about the BCRA’s gold shipment to London

Several analysts explained What does the Government want to do? to better understand the risks and advantages of the decision. “If you want use gold as collateral, You have to be in Europe to get a certificate that allows you to do it. I think that what the Government wants to do is to pay something financially or do a REPO,” he explains to Ambit the Economist Sebastian Menescaldi, from Eco Go.

“Financial operations related to the volatility of gold can be carried out “on which a return can be obtained, by providing guarantees (which can be executed, that is why the gold can be there)”, says the economist.

“The Central Bank can now invest the dollars it has and earn a return of around 5% if it places them in US Treasury bills. Without knowing the details, The announcement made by the minister indicates that gold can also be profitable If one invests it abroad,” he points out the economist and director of the consulting firm Econviews, Miguel Kiguelspeaking to this newspaper. “If that is the case, it sounds like a reasonable decision,” he said.

The city’s concern about the BCRA’s gold

Meanwhile, what is causing a lot of concern among some market analysts is that BCRA gold is part of the reserves and warn that using it as a guarantee for investments is a high risk for an asset so important to our country. Meanwhile, others speak of a positive decision, although they acknowledge that we must wait to know the details.

The BCRA It has around US$4.6 billion of its reserves in golda part of that total was in London before this shipment that Bausili made and could already be used as collateral in operations.

This is not the first time that members of the current government have made a decision of this kind. During their time at the helm of the BCRA, Federico Sturzenegger, the current Minister of Deregulation and State Transformation, had already tried to get a larger part of that precious metal out of the country from the vault of the monetary regulator.but I had not been able to do it.

Now, Caputo and Bausili seem to have made it happen without anticipating the “move”. Once again, the idea of ​​Milei’s Government is to “do everything more thoroughly and faster” than during Mauricio Macri’s administration.

In that line, for Economist Ricardo Aronskind said, “with a Government that has no concern for the issue of sovereigntyit is quite understandable that they are always ready to part with strategic assets.” He believes that it is not by depositing gold abroad that significant resources will be obtained for the country.

Consider this It goes against the “international trend of the last two decades, which shows that in many first-rate countries it is to accumulate gold in anticipation of a possible disruption of the global order.” Thus, in his view, “if Argentina had strategic thinking, it would have to take care of and increase these assets within the national territory, and work to obtain more income by boosting our exports and reducing our debt.”

In fact, During the previous management of the Central Bank, there were many rumors on repeated occasions that “the gold was being touched” reserves” that generated alarm among many analysts in the city, but were never confirmed. Now, once again, the BCRA’s bullion is in the spotlight and the market is expecting more concrete responses from the Government in this regard.