Martin Grosz
08/20/2020 - 17:30
- Clarín.com
- Society
In '90, a $ 100 equivalent to $ 100 . Today, he barely manages to buy a savings dollar and even less (US $ 0.75) in a cave. In its three current variants -Roca, Evita and la taruca-, the purchasing power of these papers was pulverized by inflation. So much so that one of them is no longer enough in the City to pay a dozen eggs ($ 130), half a dozen bills ($ 110), three empanadas ($ 135), a kilo of chicken ($ 115), 200 grams of ham ($ 130) or two sachets of milk ($ 108), for example. For a medium purchase at the supermarket, you have to stack 30 or 50 violets.
This would be nothing more than a curiosity if it were easy to find others of greater value to make payments. But the opposite happens. Banks and ATMs drop $ 500 and $ 1,000 copies just droppers , and generously hand over what they do have to spare stocking their treasures: thick bundles of $ 100.
It happens that the $ 100 bills in circulation in the country continue to exceed by far, in quantity, all the others: 1 out of every 2 papers has that number. But it's not just that. In addition, these devalued papers were also, although it sounds crazy, the ones that have been issued the most in recent months , generating an annoying "flood".
As Clarín calculated with data from the Central Bank (BCRA), in the face of an abrupt jump in the demand for cash, since the quarantine began, the authorities released another 881.9 million $ 100 bills, at an average rate of 3,977 per minute or 66 per second .
With the exception of the "Evita" that began to circulate in quarantine, many $ 100 bills are worn and damaged.
In the five months that go from March 13 to August 14, there were 2,343.8 million $ 100 bills ( 51.7 per inhabitant ) in the hands of people and banks, to currently being about 3,225.7 million ( 71.1 per person ). They expanded their circulation 37.6% .
Since the pandemic began, in units, the issuance of these papers multiplied by 9 that of the $ 200, was 6 times greater than that of "jaguars" (of $ 500) and was close to tripling that of "horneros" ( $ 1,000).
Of $ 500, 125.5 million copies were added in these five months, and there are already 979.3 million on the street ( 21.6 per inhabitant ); and of $ 1,000, 340.8 million were added, reaching 736.8 million in circulation ( 16.2 per inhabitant ). Thus, the $ 100 bills added since March (881.9 million) were almost double that of all the $ 500 and $ 1,000 together (466.3 million) that were issued in the same period.
Saturating the street with $ 100 bills was the only way that the BCRA found, during the pandemic, to meet a very exacerbated demand for cash by people, who flocked to the cashiers to withdraw state aid such as Family Income of Emergency (IFE) and to get money in piles to buy in nearby stores.
As Clarín reported , Alberto Fernández ruled out in May a BCRA project to issue $ 5,000 or higher bills, something that the banks had been imploring. "It was an idea that circulated, but we are not going to do it, " he said, in an attitude similar to that adopted by Cristina Kirchner towards the end of her mandate, when she refused to print bills of more than $ 100 so as not to admit the inflation .
Without that resource, what they had to do was put the Mint to work literally non-stop on its two floors, in full quarantine, to print $ 1,000 bills. But it was not enough , so steps were started to re-import tickets.
And in the meantime, they got out of their way by taking out onto the street a huge batch of new $ 100 bills with Evita's face , which had been in a vault for several years and had not been destroyed after being replaced by the "taruca." In total, from March 20 to August 13, circulating cash grew in pesos by 109%: more than doubled, and the $ 100 bill had the main role in that movie.
Hassles and costs
The effects are felt in everyday life, because it became very common for banks, at the counter or through ATMs, to only hand out $ 100 bills and - less frequently - $ 200 bills . "We don't have bigger ones, they don't send us," is the repeated apology of the employees.
"The Central Bank delivers totally insufficient amounts of high-denomination bills. Every $ 2,000 of cash that we ask for, they send a 'baker' and 10 $ 100 papers . The small bills are so many that they are no longer entering some treasuries. And that's what we then have to pay people, who logically complain ", they explain to Clarín in one of the main banks in the country.
The tediousness of moving around in everyday life with $ 100 bills at this point is more than evident. It involves, for example, counting and delivering 45 papers to pay for the month in a garage, 70 to pay the expenses of an apartment or 120 copies to pay the annual service of a small vehicle. Stacks that no longer fit in wallets .
But in addition, they warn in the banks that, by handing out so many $ 100 and $ 200 bills, the ATMs are blocked and emptied more often , being out of service until they receive attention. In addition, since these devices do not give more than 30 or at most 40 bills at a time, people are having to do 2 or 3 operations in a row to take amounts greater than $ 8,000 and even greater than $ 4,000, all in $ 100 bills. .
The draft of the 5,000 bill that the government ultimately did not want to print.
"Keeping the cashiers with money, who are constantly handing out a beastly amount of bills, is demanding a huge effort from us. Before they were recharged once a day, but now you have to do it at least twice, including on weekends . And the costs of moving tickets went through the roof, "protest sources from another entity, who asked not to be identified.
The account they do is that, if each ATM can load 6 thousand bills, having "bakers" that is equivalent to $ 6 million; but with "Evitas", it's only $ 600,000. "You pay 60 IFE, and the ATM is already empty", summary. Each of these social benefits involves 100 bills of $ 100. With "bakers", it would be only 10. And if the plan of the $ 5,000 bill were floated, two papers would suffice.
MG