In October, in the middle of the election campaign, the surge in dollar purchases by individuals and companies through financial operations continued: US$6,331 million. Subtracting sales, there were net expenses of $5,434 million. In September, these amounts totaled US$6.577 million.
Of this total, 1.6 million people purchased banknotes worth a total of US$4,669 million, and 784,000 people made total sales of US$473 million, according to figures released by the Central Bank (BCRA).
So, In the first ten months of the year, non-financial private sector purchases totaled US$36,746 million. Total dollar sales by individuals and companies amounted to $7,348 million, leaving a “deficit” of $29,398 million, according to the Central Bank’s exchange balance figures. This is the highest value of “foreign asset formation” since the beginning of the series in 2003.
A significant portion of dollar purchases did not remain in the financial system because in October “private sector deposits increased by US$1,160 million, ending the month at US$35,105 million,” according to BCRA. International reserves decreased by $992 million compared to the end of September.
“This dynamic was mainly explained by the National Treasury’s dollar sell-off in the market during a month of financial volatility.. This led to a decrease in their foreign currency deposits with the central bank. The increase in foreign currency current account deposits of BCRA financial entities works in the opposite direction, the report said.
For his part, unlike September, The current account of the exchange balance recorded a deficit of $2,599 million in October.
Foreign trade left a negative balance of US$677 million. Import payments totaled US$6,067 million, partially offset by export duties of US$5,389 million.
This deficit is explained by the strong increase in income from export collections in September at the expense of October due to the reduction and/or elimination of customs tariffs on foreign sales.
So, In 10 months, the current account balance reached only US$505 million.
To the merchandise deficit, the red color was added to the services account, with net expenditures of $1,008 million. The interest also left a negative balance of US$916 million: of this total, US$718 million was provided by the General Government and the Telecommunications Regulatory Bank and US$189 million to the private sector.
In 10 months, the interest account showed a net outflow of US$8,084 million.
Net expenses for flights and tickets amounted to 793 million US dollars, accumulated in 10 months Negative balance of $8,780 million, the highest value since 2017.
The report notes that “the movement of financial debts of the non-financial private sector, which includes loans from abroad, debt securities, loans to international organizations, and local financial loans, resulted in a net income of $563 million in October (as the net income of the “energy” sector amounted to about $315 million). This total was explained by net income from financial debts abroad, foreign currency securities, and loans to international organizations, amounting to $590 million.”
For their part, direct investments by non-residents in the private, non-financial sector recorded a net income through the exchange market that did not exceed $124 million in October, while portfolio investments of non-residents recorded a net income of $1,924 million.