The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA)'s decision to end the LEFI produced a substantial change in July's financial dynamics and marked a turning point in public debt management.
The president of the institution, Santiago Bausili, explained that until that moment, banks deposited their peso surpluses daily at the BCRA, which absorbed them at the end of the day and returned them with interest the following morning. This mechanism, which ensured immediate liquidity and steady returns, disappeared overnight, forcing institutions to adapt to a different scheme.
The end of these operations coincided with significant maturities of debt in both local and foreign currency. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in July, commitments in pesos amounting to 42.6 trillion and in dollars amounting to 4.825 billion had to be met. This scenario put pressure on the market, which faced adaptation difficulties and resulted in an average increase of 7.6% in the wholesale dollar exchange rate.
Despite that context, the Finance Secretariat, led by Pablo Quirno, managed to reduce Central Administration debt by the equivalent of 18.153 billion dollars compared to June, closing the month at 447.202 billion.
