To buy land, a car or rent a house, Argentines are counting on dollars bruised by periodic economic crises and plagued by inflation that is eroding purchasing power and is forecast to rise above 60% this year.

“Life depending on the dollar is karma that will stay with us forever. We Argentines are green,” says Marcela Leiron, a 56-year-old merchant who has come to terms with her “dependence on the dollar because of an economic mess that no government can solve.”

Under the currency controls that have been in place since 2019, the official quotation and other rates coexist together – “blue”, “social”, “clean”, “contado con liqui”, which is the result of popular ingenuity and sophisticated financial transactions. achieve access to foreign currency in the country that issues them drop by drop.

In Argentina, currency control allows you to buy up to $200 a month at the official price – Photo: Jesús Alexander Reyes Sanchez/Reproduction/Flickr/ND

On Tuesday (28), the “blue” price, bought on the black market, reached a new high of 236 pesos per dollar, while the “official” rate is 130 pesos, amid expectations of devaluation and lower prices. , and coincidentally with bonus payments to employees who resort to the dollar to protect themselves from inflation.

“In Argentina, the dollar is always in the news,” economist Andres Weiner told AFP. “In bi-monetary societies like Argentina, where the dollar is the benchmark and reserve of value, people save in dollars and the demand for them is constant,” he explained.

all in dollars

Marcela has no idea how much her house is worth in pesos. Like all Argentines, he only knows the price in dollars. The real estate market has been driven by the US currency since the last dictatorship in the country (1976-1983).

“As long as this inflation exists, the benefits of dollars are obvious. We don’t have a strong currency and controlled inflation like Chile and Israel,” Alejandro Bennazar, president of the Argentine Chamber of Real Estate, told AFP.

Inflation was 29.3% between January and May and was 60.7% between May 2021 and May 2022, one of the highest rates in the world.

To save money, Argentines are switching to the dollar – Photo: Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil/ND

Just as exchange rates have their own names, so do exchange offices. “Arbolito” refers to a person who personally offers to buy or sell dollars on the streets of downtown Buenos Aires; cueva is the place where the transaction takes place.

In the special view of the Arbolito, his work “is a service to society, because it is more profitable for people to exchange money in cuevas than in banks.” “This is part of the normality in the country,” he said.

Marcela buys “like an ant, $20 to $50 a month, as much as possible.” When asked if she would save in pesos, she resolutely replied: “Never!”.

“Argentines save in dollars, and when the crisis comes, they sell. He will never regain confidence in his weight,” says another “arbolito” with a decade of experience in this business.

Currency controls allow you to buy up to $200 a month at the official price, but the complex requirements for obtaining it force most of them to resort to the informal market.

Imports require permission from the Central Bank, which introduced new conditions this week in a bid to limit the use of its meager reserves to essential goods.