By Charles Newbery
BUENOS AIRES
The central bank on Monday called for questioning 13 companies and individuals about illegal currency trading, in the latest effort to reduce capital flight after nearly four years of decline in hard currency reserves.
In the Official Bulletin, the government’s newspaper of record, the monetary authority listed the names and identification numbers of the nine individuals and four firms that it believes are involved in the buying and selling of currencies on the black market.
It ordered all of them, 11 Argentines, a Chilean and a Dutchman, to appear within 10 banking days before its Department of Litigation Affairs in Currency Trading.
This is the bank’s latest effort to clamp down on the black market since a surge in the demand for dollars cut the peso to 16 per dollar at the end of September for a nearly 100 percent gap with the official rate.
In response, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner lashed out at her central bank president, prompting his resignation and the appointment of Alejandro Vanoli as a replacement.
The new chief, who has compared publishing the illegal exchange rate to printing the price of cocaine in the newspaper, has fought to cut the black market rate which currently stands at 12.67 – a 49 percent gap with the official rate of 8.51 per dollar.
Vanoli has done this by raising interest rates to encourage saving in pesos, helping to reduce the demand for dollars.
His central bank also has exercised a currency swap with China and encouraged insurance companies to reduce their dollar holdings, while the government has asked farmers to export more of their stored grains. It also held a tender for the sale of third- and fourth-generation mobile telephone licenses that will bring $2.23 billion into the country.
Marina Dal Poggetto, an economist at Estudio Bein y Asociados, a consulting firm in Buenos Aires, said that all of this is helping to increase dollar supplies in the market, brightening expectations of steadier reserves.
With reserves seen more stable, the central bank will have an easier time in maintaining the official exchange rate at around 8.50 per dollar, she added.
At the same time, expectations of the expansion of peso supplies also has declined following the government’s recent sales of dollar-linked bonds, also reducing pressure on the exchange rate, Dal Poggetto said.
Another factor similar to the calling in of people for questioning has come with the government’s deploying of the national guard to police the financial district in Buenos Aires.
“Nobody likes to get asked what they are doing by an officer when they are going in and out of a money house,” said Federico MacDougall, an economist at the University of Belgrano in Buenos Aires. “This discourages trading.”
He said the black market rate likely will level off at 12.50 or possibly drop further.
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