translated from Spanish: Nearly four million people bought dollar savings during August

Nearly four million Argentines bought the savings dollar according to official data provided by the Central Bank. This figure is slightly above the 3.9 million who came in July to treasure in foreign currency. According to data from the Central Bank’s (BCRA) exchange rate balance sheet published by the bank on Friday, gross purchases of “Human Persons” amounted to US$768 million, an amount well in more than $753 million last month. In net terms: the purchase of dollars for treasury reached US$728 million in August: $750 million is explained by net acquisitions of people and $22 million for company sales. Despite successful debt redemptions achieved by the Government, the numbers remained 10 times above those received before the coronavirus pandemic erupted in the country. During the month of March, the purchase of dollars totaled around USD70 million, spread over about 450,000 savers. Under this framework, the BCRA detached from nearly $3 billion over the past three months to sustain the value of the official exchange rate, and the International Gross Reserves rose from $43.4 billion to the current $41.97 billion. It is worth remembering that last September 15, the Central Bank announced that in dollar savings purchases and credit card payments in foreign currency, a withholding tax was to be applied to profits of 35%, while the amounts spent were to be taken into account in the $200 monthly quota.

Original source in Spanish