At the end of the first semester of the year, the operations carried out by financial institutions left a surplus of $812 million, which took pressure off the exchange rate in this period.
Although the figure is lower than in 2018 ($928.9 million), the amount generated in 2019 allowed the Central Bank (BCCR) to meet the foreign currency requirements of the non-banking public sector and partially restore the currencies sold for this concept in previous periods.
According to the BCCR, the greater availability of foreign currency was reflected in a relatively stable behavior of the exchange rate in the wholesale market Monex with a downward trend during the past six months.
At the end of June, this indicator had an accumulated variation of -4.7% and an interannual variation of 2.3%.
The behavior of the foreign exchange market was mainly influenced by the improvement in the confidence of the economic agents in the financial markets once the Law of Strengthening of Public Finances was approved, as well as by the greater abundance that this market usually has in this time of year for seasonal reasons, until April. As of this month, it is possible that the expectation of a prompt approval of the government’s external debt has also influenced the behaviour,”
reported the Central Bank.
For the second half of the year, conditions of relative stability might continue, except for eventualities, and they could even be more favorable, since the arrival of Eurobonds and multilateral credits would generate less pressure for the exchange rate.