For the government, Avoiding shocks with the dollar is a priority. This is indicated by the successive decisions in exchange and monetary matters that the economic team has been taking in recent weeks, which expanded today with A new rise of lace to banks from Monday.
The official reaction arrives after yesterday’s tender, which the government made to face Mistrifications for $ 14.98 million on the first day of the week. In this operation, He only managed to capture $ 9,147 billion, even validating a rise in interest ratesthat They reached 69.2% annual nominal (around 4.5% monthly).
This result, although it allowed him to “stretch” the deadlines and postpone 64.3% of the maturities after the elections, It involved freeing the market about $ 5 billionthat would remain in the hands of the banks, after their decision not to renew their holdings in Treasury letters.
In that context, The BCRA‘s decision aims to “dry the square” of pesos to try to prevent this supposed “surplus” from pressing on the exchange rate.
The measure, which had been anticipated yesterday by Federico Furiasedirector of the BCRA, in his X account, he was confirmed Today, through communication to 8302 of the agency. “The surplus weights of today’s tender will be immediately absorbed“, Had confirmed yesterday furified in his post.” In this case, they will be mostly absorbed via the increase in paid lace With new public titles to be subscribed on Monday, through a treasure tender, ”he added.
That measure was confirmed today through The normative changes of the BCRA, which, in practice, raise the lace for banks and raise costs for the “breaches” of these lacein a movement that represents a hardening of monetary policy.
Specifically, The monetary entity rose five percentage points the “minimum effective” level For sight deposits, common investment funds money market and other investment instruments in pesos, in addition to establishing a daily parameter (no longer the monthly average) so that banks meet this requirement.
Besides, It was defined that entities may integrate up to three percentage points (of the five that increased) with public titles that will be issued in “special tenders for financial entities.”
After knowing that decision, The Secretary of Finance announced the call to a tender “out of calendar” For Monday, in which he will offer an instrument for benches expiring on November 28. This way, Reduces the rise of lace for banks, that can obtain some interest from these immobilized funds.
After the announcement, the banking chambers and the country’s financial entities were summoned to an online meeting, with the aim of explaining the scope and details of the new measures. One of those in charge of this task, by the BCRA, was Darío Stefanelswho works as the main manager of issuance and normative applications in the entity.
For the entities that participated in that meeting, the main focus, in addition to the impact of the rise rise, was due to the change in the “daily” measurement of these levels. “That implies A covert lace risebecause it is impossible to efficient the balances that remain at zero sleeping in BCRA, ”he explained to The nation An executive who was at the meeting.
In turn, from another bank they claimed for breaches and the increase in penalties in this situation. “Having a window in which banks have no tools to maneuver since the peso market closes until the MEP closes, they become much more possible. And as the scheme was, it implies that if a single day in the month you fail, the month tells you as breached. And if repeated for three periods it has serious consequences, ”they analyzed.
The scenario raised by the Government with these new ads Concrete a restrictive approach in its monetary policy (withdraw pesos). Contrasts with the declared ‘anker point’, that in the approach of the economic team it occurred when, in the tenders of instruments in pesos, There was an amount of pesos that was not renewed, which accounted for a greater demand for liquidity by the banks to deliver loans to the private sector.
Now, in a stage of the dollar (in July he approached the ceiling of the flotation band, and then backed down), the government seems to have changed posture and resolves not allowing “liquidity excesses”.
“There is a hardening in monetary policy. Lords rise, harden their conditions and raise the penalty for breaking both lace and global position in foreign currency,” analyzes Gabriel Caamaño, an economist of Outlier, who warns that This decision is “exactly the inverse to the Anker point.”
“This is a ‘crowding out’; You get liquidity banks to lend, because this is to raise lace, and part of that you send it to the treasure. The dollar returned part of the rise he had done in July, and clearly want him to continue going down. Obviously, some transfer at prices had seen and they would not have liked. It is that, given the current Argentine economic scenario, with all the missing reforms, It is easier to make the dollar return to adjust uncomable prices. And that’s why they turned the dollar, ”explains the analyst.
That dynamic is reflected in the exchange movements of the day. After the BCRA ads and the Ministry of Finance, after the validation of higher interest rates in yesterday’s tender, the wholesale dollar drilled $ 1300 (falls $ 16 and operates at $ 1296 averaging the day), while The retail exchange rate is at $ 1310 on the screens of Banco Nación.
The context, however, implies a direct impact on both fiscal numbers, for the greatest burden of interests for treasure, and for the real economy, with higher rates that affect higher financial costs for loans and for the financing of purchases in installments.
“This affects the level of activity and consumption. In recent times, some sectors dynamized their sales with fees without interest, but it is difficult to see how long they can be maintained, with banks facing this monetary restriction and the highest financial cost, ”illustrates Caamaño.
date: 2025-08-15 12:02:00