Argentina’s Central Bank snapped a near seven-month streak of dollar purchases, just a day after the IMF encouraged officials to keep raising foreign currency reserves.
The monetary authority didn’t buy greenbacks in Argentina’s official currency market on Tuesday for the first time since January 2, according to a spokesman. So far this year, it has bought an average of US$97 million a day, pushing total foreign reserves to US$48.9 billion, near the highest level since 2019.
On Monday, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva called on Central Bank Governor Santiago Bausili to “keep it up, keep buying,” during a press conference in Buenos Aires.
She visited President Javier Milei as relations between the IMF and Argentina, which owes the Fund US$57 billion, seem to have improved.
The Central Bank of Argentina has purchased around US$13 billion since the start of the year, according to Georgieva, “exceeding the target we have in the programme” with the IMF.
State-owned Banco Nación appeared in the spot market Tuesday, selling dollars to support the peso near 1,500 per dollar, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Traders said the pressure on the peso may have stemmed from an upcoming government dollar-linked bond repayment, with investors looking to push down the peso to maximise the payout. The currency weakened less than 0.1 percent to 1,498 per US dollar.
Adding to pressure on the peso, a university index of government confidence published late Monday showed Argentines’ confidence in Milei’s administration is at its lowest level since he took office.
Dollar demand from Argentine savers has been one of the main sources of pressure on the peso since the start of the year. Residents have been buying an average of about US$2 billion a month in foreign-currency banknotes this year, according to Central Bank data.
Still, the peso is only down 3.2 percent against the dollar in 2026, significantly less than inflation after years of much steeper losses.
by Ignacio Olivera Doll & Manuela Tobias, Bloomberg
