Ana Clara Pedotti
07/20/2021 11:12 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 07/20/2021 11:26 AM
Despite the exchange noise
, the Central Bank already bought US $ 1 billion
in July on the official market.
And even though
the gap with the blue skyrocketed to almost 88%
In recent days, the body chaired by Miguel Pesce believe that the measures announced in the last long weekend
"are going to have an effect in the short term."
There was a common diagnosis among all the players in the local financial system: in the second semester the "dollar rain" from agriculture would stop and
exchange rate pressures would increase
.
The Central Bank took note and, after having bought almost 65% less dollars in the exchange market in June than in the previous month, it sought in July to anticipate the storms.
And even with a context of external volatility and with greater pressures in the parallel market, with an exchange gap that reached over 88% on Monday, the monetary authority managed to
buy another US $ 60 million in the official market
, which they
are in addition to the US $ 530 million it had acquired last week,
after hardening access to financial dollars.
So far this month, it has
already bought US $ 970 million, in addition to the US $ 6,434 million it had accumulated in the first half of the year
and adds firepower to try to appease devaluation pressures.
However, in the financial market and even with a new set of restrictions that greatly limit operations, the appetite for the dollar remains high:
the gap between the official dollar and the blue jumped more than 20 points in two months
and is already located close to 88%.
Argentina is not an isolated case.
This Monday the nervousness of the international markets due to the fear of a new wave of contagion from Covid 19 and its impact on the local economy, raised the dollar Index by 0.2%, an index that measures the relationship of the US currency within a basket of currencies, and caused the prices of emerging currencies to fall.
In Brazil.
the real was devalued by almost 2%.
International humor puts a stop to the official strategy.
And it further marks the need for action in the local market.
The operators of the City again reported
strong interventions in the bond market,
to keep the MEP dollar at bay, which closed in line with the solidarity dollar.
The exchange rate gap, which is close to 90%, sets the pace.
However, in the Central they assure that the measures taken were correct and that
no new
measures
are being studied
to curb the demand for dollars.
"It is normal that it takes a few weeks to stabilize," they say.
While the monetary authority
is reluctant to use the monetary policy rate
as a tool to regain the attractiveness of placements in pesos, it
does analyze intervening in the bond market
and adding a mechanism to prevent volatility and ensure liquidity.
It would be a tool similar to a
future of public securities
that would allow you to control your interventions in this market.
"The
characteristics that the instrument will have
is being analyzed
," said Central sources. "The securities market was affected as a result of disruptive measures that were taken in 2019. The restructuring of the Lebac first and the rescheduling of the Letes later caused damage to the capital market," they recalled.
"The market must trust that
the BCRA will defend the interest curve, preserving liquidity and avoiding the volatility of Treasury instruments.
Today the BCRA intervenes in the yield curve of bonds in pesos. And it has a guarantee of liquidity for the banks that participate in the Treasury tenders. Now they are thinking of other instruments
that can be used by investment funds,
"they advanced.
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