In 2022, the charges for exports made by the Central Bank totaled US$90,532 million and import payments totaled US$68,715 million.
This extraordinary exchange trade surplus –
for a whopping US$ 21,817 million
– left for the payment of services and capital movements (private debt payments plus purchase of dollar bills), which explains that the gross reserves of the Central Bank have increased only US$ 4,925 million.
And this increase is explained by the disbursement of the IMF, with its counterpart of increase in total public debt.
The debt with the IMF was US$40,952 million at the end of 2021 and a year later (December 2022) it amounted to US$45,707 million, according to the records of the Ministry of Finance.
Last year for travel tickets and other card payments abroad and freight and insurance, US$ 10,296 million left.
And in interest on public and private debt, another US$7,291 million, of which US$1,785 million corresponded to payments to the IMF and US$851 million to cancellations with the rest of the financial organizations.
A total of US$ 17,587 million
.
According to the report of the Central Bank (BCRA) "Evolution of the Exchange Market and Exchange Balance", in the total for the year 2022
the services account registered an increase of 127% compared to the accumulated figure of last year, "
mainly
driven
by the growth of gross expenses for
"Travel, tickets and other card payments
" and, to a lesser extent, "Freight and insurance" in a context of
higher prices for the
international transport of goods".
According to INDEC, "in December 2022, the unit value of international freight (dollars/ton) was 148.1 dollars per ton, 4.9% higher than in the same period of 2021 (141.2 dollars per ton) and 75.3% higher than December 2020 (84.5 dollars per ton)”.
On the import side, according to INDEC, they totaled US$81,523 million (accrued)
while payments were US$68,715 million
, according to the Central Bank.
The
difference of US$ 12,808 million
arises because a good part of the foreign purchases were financed with loans and self-loans from the parent companies.
As of September 30, the latest official data,
private debt from imports totaled USD 31,113 million
, registering a maximum value since the beginning of the series.
It represented
an increase of US$ 8,888 million
in the interannual comparison.
"The record of this debt would be mainly explained by the effect of adjustments to foreign regulations and changes in terms of import payments," according to the Central Bank.
That is, the payment of foreign purchases with their own dollars or with foreign credits.
By type of creditor, the related companies were the ones that granted the most financing for this type of operations for a total of US$16,472 million, while the rest of the creditors added US$14,641 million.
NE
look also
The IMF sends a delegation to Buenos Aires for the fourth review
The blue fell but the Central continued to sell reserves: it has already lost US$192 million this month