“The cards are on the table. It remains for Alberto to define”. With the crisis clock ticking frantically, in the Government await the word of the president Alberto Fernandez to define measures that seek to curb the fierce escalation of the blue dollar and get from foreign exchange agro-exporters that it needs like water to swell the reserves of the Central Bank.
as far as he could tell THE NATION after a Sunday day where secrecy reigned, and waiting for the efforts than in Washington carried out by the Minister of Economy, Silvina Batakisthere are still different positions in the Government in relation to the best way to achieve that agro-exporters liquidate their dollars to resolve, at least in part, the country’s reserve crisis.
Previous versions about ads they were back to nothing and a drop in agricultural withholdings to obtain fresh funds seems to have been ruled out.
as far as he could tell THE NATIONBatakis herself and the Minister of Productive Development, Daniel Scioliwould lean towards some “gesture” towards the sector, such as the implementation of a “chacarero dollar”at an intermediate price between the official and the blue, considered illegal by the Government.
To them is added the proposal that, in theory, the head of the Lower House approached, Serge Massa, which establishes a tax reduction for exporters linked to the payment of VAT. “There is no work on splitting. It’s not on the agenda and never was”, they answer, firm, from the Central Bank that heads Miguel Pesce.
“It is to be hoped that as of this week the extra pressure on the market that has been registered in recent weeks will begin to loosen,” said sources from the entity. And they added that “the BCRA maintains the intention of refine regulatory standards in order to resolve unintended results that affect the production process”, in addition to maintaining “coordination of monetary and exchange policy with the Ministries of Economy and Productive Development”.
“Pesce doesn’t want anything that looks like unfolding. He wants to hold out for a couple of weeks, and he trusts that from the field they are going to liquidate the currencies, ”they affirm from an important official dispatch.
The Minister of Agriculture, Julian Dominguezapproached in dialogues with the Minister of Economy and the head of the Central Bank the official numbers, which speak of 22 million tons of soybeans still not liquidatedtranslated into the “twenty billion dollars” that the President claimed to contribute to the field in his speeches last week, because -as he criticized- “they save them when the country needs them.”
“There are differences, because the exporters settle in dollars and the farmers in pesos,” said an official source with the intention of qualifying the presidential speech.
The discussion, other official sources say, already took place in a similar way during the week, before Matías LammensMinister of Tourism, will announce after the cabinet meeting a differentiated exchange rate for receptive tourism, finally implemented with a limit of US$ and with the price of the so-called financial dollar.
It transpired from reliable sources that a part of the cabinet demanded a broad agreement with credit cards to take the dollar from tourists at the price of the blue (today close to $340 per unit) to favor the direct entry of foreign currency, which collided with the Pesce’s decision not to generate a new price for the North American ticket.
“Nobody knows what Alberto and Cristina talked about. That depends on tomorrow [por hoy] there are new measures. No more can be expected,” said an official with knowledge of the worrying numbers for the economy and a lack of definition that, if extended, would further complicate the outlook for the Government.
“No announcements for today”, was the most repeated phrase yesterday, waiting for news this Monday.