On February 2 of this year, the Central Bank officially reported that the machinery was starting up so that the $2,000 bill
would hit the streets in June or at the latest in July
.
A very necessary but
“short”
announcement given that due to the
unstoppable rise in prices,
higher denomination bills may be needed.
But it is known that the imprint of the Kirchner governments is, specifically on the issue of tickets,
to go against common sense.
Data from the Central Bank say that there are
3,086 million $1,000 bills in circulation;
1,322 million $500 bills;
2,479 million $200 bills;
1.966 million $100 bills;
200 million $50 bills;
406 million $20 bills and 487 million $10 bills.
These numbers indicate that
almost 40% of the banknotes in circulation are of the maximum denomination.
Those of $1,000 -
equivalent to 2.31 blue dollars
according to the close of this Thursday.
The others, almost annoying.
The proof is in people's annoyance when they go to the ATM and receive bills other than $1,000.
But let's go back to the $2,000 bill.
An impressive fact is that when he goes out on the field
his purchasing power will have eroded significantly
.
From the day of the announcement to
today, April 21,
the loss has been considerable.
It would be necessary to publish an errata:
"Where it says $2000 it should say $1639"
.
Because that is the
real value of the ticket today
.
All because of inflation, which was
6.6% in February;
7.7% in March and 4.9% so far in April,
assuming that this month closes with inflation of 7%.
Another way of seeing things.
It could be said that to make a purchase that in February was paid for with a hypothetical $2,000 bill,
$2,408 will be needed today.
That is, a $2,000 bill plus two $200 bills, plus another $10 bill, receiving a $2 bill in return.
All to offset the inflation of 20.4%
accumulated since the day a new $2,000 bill was announced that will honor Dr. Cecilia Grierson, Dr. Ramón Carrillo and the Malbrán Institute.
Beyond these numbers games (or not so games) the truth is that
there is an overabundance of very low utility bills on the street
.
And that goes beyond the phenomenon of low demand for money, that is, the willingness of the public to keep pesos in their possession.
What happens is precisely the opposite: people want to get rid of their pesos as soon as possible.
It is an attitude inherent to the inflationary phenomenon that we Argentines are suffering.
The truth is that the banknotes are left over, they wear out and must be destroyed.
But the banknote destruction process is running at a slow speed.
This has led banks to accumulate in their treasuries mountains of banknotes suitable for destruction.
This means that the banks
accumulate stacks and stacks of $100 bills and don't know what to do with them
, because for some reason the Central Bank is not destroying the required amount of bills.
And neither does he accept receiving them from the banks.
An amazing situation occurs.
Banks have to put resources into
building vaults specifically designed to hold $100 bills
, even though they arguably accumulate junk, since those bills will no longer hit the streets.
The other problem is that only a part of these bills are considered by the BCRA on account of "encajes".
Another part is computed on account of liquidity bills.
Thus, although it may seem amazing, this "garbage" waiting to be destroyed contributes to the monetary policy of the Central Bank.
The rest is money that is devaluing without being able to give it any use.
Because from now on, it doesn't pay any interest either.
In a first line bank they indicated that they are building deposits of 200 square meters, at a rate of one per quarter, to fill them with $100 bills.
All with security cameras and consistent standards issued by the Central Bank.
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