Purchase of dollars by individuals fell 87% in April year-on-year

The purchase of dollars by individuals reached US $ 248 million in April, which represented a decrease of 87% compared to the same month in 2019, while oilseeds and cereals exporters sold US $ 1,221 million, with a year-on-year drop 42%.

This is clear from the Foreign Exchange Report released this afternoon by the Central Bank, which also highlighted that during April, international reserves increased by US $ 7 million, to end the month with a stock of US $ 43,568 million.

“In the context of the pandemic, with impacts both on the level of global and local activity, on trade flows and capital movements, and in parallel with the progress in negotiations for the restructuring of public external debt,” the Clients of financial entities bought US $ 582 million, to which US $ 8 million acquired by the entities themselves was added, an amount that was covered by net sales of the BCRA.

Within this framework, the companies in the real sector were net buyers of foreign currency for US $ 95 million, while exporters of “Oilseeds and cereals” sold US $ 1,221 million, with an interannual drop of 42%.

The BCRA recalled that during last November and December, “the sector sold net US $ 4.6 billion, which represented an 84% year-on-year rise, basically” due to advances and pre-financing from abroad, which have been canceled during 2020 ” .

In addition, the external sales records for all of 2019 were above the exports of the year by about US $ 8,500 million.

On the other hand, the companies of the “Real Sector excluding Oilseeds and Cereals” made net purchases of US $ 1,316 million, mainly to make payments for imports of goods and services.

In addition, “Institutional Investors and Others”, both residents and non-residents, made net purchases in the month for US $ 163 million.

The exchange current account, which comprises the net result of exchange operations registered as net exports of goods and services, and primary and secondary income in line with the definitions of the Balance of Payments, registered a deficit of US $ 155 million.

Meanwhile, the financial account of the “Non-Financial Private Sector” had a deficit of US $ 348 million in April, as a consequence of net cancellations of financial debt and the formation of external assets, partially offset by income linked to direct investments.