Earlier this month, the Central Bank (BCRA) had to sold massively USD in the spot market to halt peso weakening after the USD quote fell to a record of ARS 20,65.

The BCRA is concerned about the impact that the weaker ARS can have on the already very high inflation. National inflation is now expected to be 15% at the end of the year while a range of 12% to 17% was targeted previously. Economists are more septic about and they expected an inflation of 20% minimum.

 According to the National Statistics Institute (INDEC), national consumer prices rose 2.4% over the previous month in February, coming in above January’s 1.8% rise. However, the increase was expected due to a hike in prices of electricity, transportation, communication and medicine that came into effect on February 1, 2018.