At 14 in Beijing, one o'clock in the morning in Buenos Aires, Miguel Pesce will meet with the president of the Bank of the People's Republic of China (PBC), Yi Gang, to renew the currency swap for another 3 years.
Also present will be the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa; the Argentine ambassador in Beijing, Sabino Vacca Narvaja, and the secretary of International Economic and Financial Affairs, Marco Lavagna.
The first agreement between the two central banks was established in 2009, when the president of the Central Bank in Argentina was Martín Redrado. A second agreement was signed in 2014, which was renewed in 2017 and supplemented at the end of 2018 with a supplementary agreement.
In August 2020 the agreement was signed and is now renewed. The swap includes the exchange of currencies as a reinforcement of international reserves for 130 billion yuan renminbi and a special activation for 35 billion yuan renminbi to offset foreign exchange market operations.
This is an exchange of US $ 18,000 million and the possibility of free use for the Central Bank to intervene of US $ 8,000 million. This +last figure is activated as the US $ 5,000 million that the Argentine Central has at its disposal are used.
By a confidentiality agreement, the interest rates applied on these loans are unknown. Before the U.S. raised them they were more expensive than loans from multilateral agencies, now they would be up to 25% cheaper.
The exchange with yuan that expired in August and that now obtained an early renewal was the main reason for Massa's tour to China.
