The Central Bank confirmed that it will not rescue defaulters and that it will delay the total lifting of the stocks on companies

Santiago Bausili, president of the BCRA, and Vladimir Werning, its vice president, led a meeting with the press on Monday afternoon. Both officials reviewed the entity’s numbers and maintained a cautious attitude regarding the exit of the stocks for legal entities.

For companies waiting for a concrete roadmap toward the total elimination of restrictions on foreign currency savings, such as “crossover” rules that prevent them from operating in the foreign exchange and bond markets at the same time, the answer was clear. The BCRA will prioritize the commercial flow and may delay the dismantling of what remains of the stocks.

Werning explained: “The expectation of opening up and providing more financial freedom is occurring to the extent that it is consistent with the other objectives of the economic program as a whole,” he said and highlighted the reduction in inflation as the main one.

At this point, Bausili highlighted that so far this year, companies have already distributed dividends of about US$1.6 billion, a figure they consider “extraordinary” for a context of emerging from the crisis. The logic is that, if the official market is not open for all purposes, companies have other coverage mechanisms. “No one today is unable to access the market if they have the urgency, but access to the official is a privilege that we take care of for production,” said a team member after the conference.

It was the first open conference in six months: the last time officials had sat down to answer questions from journalists had been in December of last year, when the organization announced that it would change the band scheme and begin buying dollars to reinforce reserves.

Regarding the objectives announced at that time, Bausili clarified that neither the idea of ​​remonetizing the economy nor the purchase of reserves were “strict promises.” On the one hand, Bausili was very cautious in explaining that the Central Bank cannot determine in advance how much the remonetization process will begin: “We cannot promise a level of remonetization because remonetization depends on the demand for money,” said the president of the entity.

For his part, Vladimir Werning linked this process directly to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), projected at 2.8% for this year. As they explained, the current monetary program is based on strict control of the aggregates so that they function as a “nominal anchor.” In this scheme, remonetization will occur to the extent that society regains confidence in the peso: “If the economy grows and inflation goes down, it is natural that people want to have more pesos, and we are going to accompany that demand without issuing above what the market asks for,” they detailed during the presentation.

Regarding the goal of purchasing dollars for reserves, the president of the Central Bank clarified that there was no specific objective although he acknowledged that in the last Staff Agreement that Argentina signed with the Monetary Fund there are clear goals of “accumulation and hoarding.”

Asked about the jump in delinquencies, both in banks and in virtual wallets, Central officials clarified that the organization will not intervene in any form of “rescue” for people, especially families, in debt. Bausili clarified that they are not going to use State resources to solve the situation of private debtors; while he highlighted that Argentine banks have capital margins to absorb these losses in their balance sheets without affecting the balance of the financial system.