Argentina lifts some exchange restrictions after the agreement with the IMF

Buenos Aires, March 4 (.).- Starting next Monday, Argentina will lift some restrictions that it had imposed for the sale and purchase of shares and public securities that many investors carry out to obtain US dollars due to the obstacles to accessing foreign currency in banks and exchange houses.

The measure, adopted by the National Securities Commission (CNV, market regulator) and published this Friday in the Official Gazette, is the first in exchange matters adopted by the Argentine authorities after announcing this Thursday an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a view to refinancing a debt of some 45,000 million dollars.

The regulator maintained that its decision, adopted in coordination with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Economy of Argentina, seek to “contribute to the development of the capital market and transparency in the areas of negotiation and settlement of regulated markets, within the framework of current economic policy.

The restrictions had been imposed in 2019, amid strong exchange tensions, and aimed at operations with the so-called “financial dollars”, a means that many investors adopted before the strong restrictions to buy US currency in banks and exchange houses.

These “financial dollars” are basically two: the “counted with liquidation” dollar (CCL), which is obtained by buying shares or bonds locally with Argentine pesos and selling them in dollars on Wall Street, and the “stock dollar” or “MEP dollar”. , which is achieved by buying assets that are quoted both in pesos and in dollars, are paid in pesos when acquired, and are sold in dollars on the Argentine stock market.

From the resolution taken by the CNV, certain limits and conditions that governed to carry out these operations are eliminated.

This Thursday, Argentina and the IMF announced an agreement to seal a new program of extended facilities, which, to enter into force, must now be approved by the Argentine Parliament and the agency’s board.

The deal aims to refinance the country’s massive debt and improve public finances and reduce high inflation.

In exchange matters, according to what the Argentine Government indicated this Thursday, “the program reinforces the commitment to exchange stability, ruling out sudden movements and establishing that the exchange administration will seek to ensure the medium-term compatibility of the real exchange rate with the objective of accumulating reserves “monetary.

For her part, Julie Kozack, deputy director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department, said at a press conference that the agreement includes a “plan to relax exchange controls” over time,” “as the country becomes a macroprudential regulatory framework.