The Argentine government confirmed that it is preparing a differentiated exchange rate for foreign tourists, within the framework of the historical rise of the blue dollar. This Wednesday was the first cabinet meeting with the presence of Minister Silvina Batakis.
It was the Minister of Tourism and Sports, Matías Lammens, who announced that new measures are being worked on so that foreign tourists who visit Argentina do not change their dollars in the informal market and turn to the official one.
In addition, the government reported that tomorrow the economic cabinet will “analyze different measures that could be communicated by the end of this week or next week.”
Referring to the historical rise of the blue dollar, which exceeded 300 Argentine pesos and further widened the exchange rate gap, Gabriela Cerruti, spokesperson for the Presidency, acknowledged that the government understands “the feeling of uncertainty generated by the information around the blue dollar.” .
But Cerruti reinforced the official position regarding the effects of the sale of dollars in the parallel market: “The blue dollar has no impact on the real economy.”
After highlighting the recovery of receptive tourism, Minister Matías Lammens stated that Argentina needs the dollars that foreign visitors bring, which usually go to the parallel market due to the wide exchange rate gap with the official price.
“Argentina needs the dollars that tourists bring in order to strengthen the Central Bank’s reserves,” he stressed. And he announced that during the meeting of the economic cabinet that Batakis will have, the implementation of a differentiated exchange rate for international tourists arriving in the country will be defined.
This was reported by Lammens: “Due to the exchange rate gap, many of the dollars do not enter the formal market. We are working on a system with a portfolio of alternatives so that tourists can exchange them in the free and unique exchange market.”
“Tourism is one of the main generators of foreign currency for Argentina and the truth is that a great job has been done, even during the pandemic, to maintain the destination Argentina with a high level of demand,” Lammens stressed, indicating that, “This work is giving very good results, but we really need the dollars to come in.”
In this sense, the Minister of Tourism deepened: “Of course the measures, in one way or another, aim to have a differentiated exchange rate for tourists.”
“The objective is that whoever can settle their dollars in the formal market through a credit card or any other formal means, can access a differentiated exchange rate that is closer to the MEP dollar or Contado con Liqui (CCL)”concluded Lammens in line with the government’s goal of accumulating foreign currency.
Source: The Chronicler-RIPE
