Blue Dollar Drops, Narrowing Gap with Stable Official Rate
The decline in informal FX quotes points to looser demand in the parallel market and less immediate pressure on Argentina's official exchange benchmarks.
Overview
- The parallel 'blue' dollar eased by roughly $10 on Wednesday, Aug. 12 and was quoted around $1,535–1,540 in Thursday surveys, reducing the premium versus official rates.
- Retail official quotes at Banco Nación held steady at $1,465 for purchases and $1,515 for sales while the wholesale market traded inside the BCRA monitoring band near $1,491.50.
- Financial-market dollars moved modestly higher with MEP around $1,525–1,529 and CCL near $1,585–1,596, leaving their spreads over the official rate in the low single digits to about 7% for CCL.
- The consumer-facing 'dólar tarjeta' remained the highest quoted rate at about $1,969.50 because it adds roughly a 30% tax surcharge to the official retail price.
- Multiple coexisting quotes reflect how capital controls, taxes on card spending and informal 'cuevas' shape FX pricing and the euro showed the same split with a higher euro-blue than the official BCRA average.