President Luis Lacalle Pou referred this Friday to the price of the dollar and the claim of different productive sectors of the country. One of the latest proposals for the drop in the exchange rate was made this week by the Rural Association of Uruguay (ARU). This type of approach has already been registered since last year.
“I understand them, and also the exporters of other items. The Uruguayan currency has strengthened. We have taken some type of measure, such as the purchase by the entities of the dollars and some intervention by the Ministry of Economy. We had an income of dollars very large and that has made it more complex. (…) Unfortunately there are times when we cannot influence the price of the dollar,” said the president in statements published by Telemundo.
The president added that “every effort” will be made to counter this situation. “Today I woke up at 05:30 and at 06:15 I was sending a message to the Minister of Economy (Azucena Arbeleche) and the President of the Central Bank (Diego Labat). I know they are having meetings these days,” he said.
Asked what this effort would be, he replied: “That without affecting inflation and finances, we can influence and intervene to some extent, with some mechanism, so that the dollar sticks more to 39, 40 pesos,” according to Telemundo.
What did Labat say this week?
On Wednesday the president of the BCU, Diego Labat said there is “conformity” with the operation of the exchange market, and that intervention will only be made when “there are disorderly conditions” that make it necessary.
In a conference organized by Somos Uruguay Labat, he referred to the need to “Take care of the free floating”, since it reflects “nothing else than the supply and demand” of dollars, “with the conditions” that the market has at any given time.
“We are very satisfied with the operation that the market is having, and the very healthy behavior. (…) When there was an excess of interventions, the different economic agents ended up having a support, and they already knew that the dollar ended up having a ceiling or a floor. That ended up changing behaviors when they made decisions. (…) We are going to intervene when we really understand that there are disorderly market conditions that make it necessary”Labat said.
The dollar traded this Friday at $38,743 in the average of interbank trades. The currency accumulates a decrease of 3.3% compared to the end of last year.
