In recent days, the financial market has been closely monitoring the actions of banks, who are being held responsible for the lack of liquidity, meaning cash, that arose after they purchased large amounts of Treasury Bonds in a recent auction.
Last Friday, banks had to pay for those investments, specifically for the LECAP and BONCAP they acquired on Wednesday. This left them with few pesos available, which forced them to borrow money from each other at very high rates, even if only for one day.
In this context, many banks decided to sell their dollars to obtain the pesos they needed. This brought some relief to the bond market, where buyers began to appear, causing the price of LECAP and BONCAP to rise. When bond prices rise, their interest rates fall. For this reason, the market is expected to operate more normally in this regard today.
Los bancos se quedaron sin pesos.
However, despite the calm in the economy, political risk due to the opposition remains present, so instability is likely to continue.
The closing prices of BONCAP indicate that the most challenging moment may be behind us. Most bonds, except those maturing in October and November, increased in price, which allowed interest rates to fall, although they remain high. For example, the LECAP maturing in July rose by 0.28%, but yields 4.81% per month, since it matures at the end of the month. For August, the rate stands at 3.60%, dropping to 3.14% in October. In November, the rate is 3.32% per month, and then continues to decline until reaching 3.09% in May 2026.
Javier Milei, presidente de Argentina.
Meanwhile, Milei's government continues to buy dollars in the market, taking advantage of a greater supply from the private sector. On Friday, it acquired just over 300 million dollars, and yesterday it bought another 400 million. With these operations, it seeks to increase the level of freely available reserves
Meanwhile, companies are also continuing to take on debt in dollars. Loma Negra managed to obtain 112 million dollars at a rate of 8%, and Arcor sought 300 million with a term of 8 years and an estimated rate also around 8%.
According to financial analyst Salvador Vitelli, the problem is not a lack of pesos in the system, but that banks overextended themselves by buying bonds and now have difficulties managing their daily liquidity.
