\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentina\u2019s Central Bank (BCRA) confirmed on Monday that it paid US$17.7 million in interest after activating its swap line with the United States in the lead-up to the legislative elections in October 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Officials also said they want to extend the swap line with China, while ruling out any near-term easing of currency controls for companies.<\/p>\n
The announcements came at a press conference held by BCRA President Santiago Bausili and Vice President Vladimir Werning at the bank\u2019s headquarters, where they presented the First-Quarter 2025 Monetary Policy Report (IPOM, in Spanish).<\/p>\n
The swap with the United States The BCRA\u2019s 2025 financial statements, published last week, showed that the bank had paid US$17.7 million to the U.S. Treasury Department in interest on the bailout. What the filings didn\u2019t say was whether that figure represented the full cost of the operation.<\/p>\n
Argentine markets had been expecting the interest on the portion of the swap that was tapped to be higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Milei\u2019s government announced on January 9 that Argentina had repaid the swap for a total of US$2.5 billion. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time that the operation had let Washington \u201cgenerate tens of millions of dollars in profits for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked by the Buenos Aires Herald, Bausili confirmed that the US$17.7 million was indeed the full cost of the operation.<\/p>\n
The swap with China Bausili told reporters that the BCRA is looking to extend its swap line with China for another three years. \u201cWe\u2019re in talks with them the People\u2019s Bank of China to keep it in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the BCRA\u2019s 2025 financial statements, the amount tapped from the swap fell from 21 billion yuan at the end of 2024 equivalent to roughly US$3 billion to 7 billion yuan at the close of 2025, or about US$1.032 billion.<\/p>\n
On the currency front, Bausili ruled out any immediate loosening of the existing restrictions known as the cepo for companies. The current setup, he argued, \u201cdoesn\u2019t appear to be holding back exports.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor now it\u2019s not a priority. The priority is making sure the economy works,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Carry trade, high default rates and BCRA independence Asked about a possible unwinding of dollar positions and foreign capital flight, Bausili said: \u201cOur measure of holdings by non-resident foreign investors in the local capital market is very marginal. The last figure I saw must be between US$2 billion and US$2.5 billion, for a capital market that must be around US$60 billion. We don\u2019t see it as a concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
On whether the BCRA\u2019s monetary policy could become more independent from Javier Milei\u2019s government, Bausili pushed back. \u201cToday the BCRA isn\u2019t independent when it comes to coordinating the economic program; it\u2019s fully aligned with the Economy Ministry. That\u2019s much more important than trying to create a situation where someone resists financing the Treasury through money printing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bausili also said the high delinquency rate in consumer credit has started to come down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact of delinquency on banks\u2019 results is becoming more and more marginal,\u201d he assured, ruling out any kind of bailout for borrowers in default.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to make decisions with other people\u2019s money, and I trust the banks to resolve the situation without our financial help. They\u2019ll be much more creative figuring out what to do with their own money.\u201d<\/p>\n
A shift in official communication The press conference marked a break from the Central Banks usually guarded approach to the media. Bausili and Werning said they plan to hold the briefings every quarter alongside the release of the IPOM.<\/p>\n
Asked by a reporter whether the change had been requested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a push for greater transparency, the officials said it was their own initiative, though they acknowledged that the IMF is \u201chappy\u201d with the move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina\u2019s Central Bank (BCRA) confirmed on Monday that it paid US$17.7 million in interest after activating its swap line with the United States in the lead-up to the legislative elections in October 2025.\u00a0 Officials also said they want to extend the swap line with China, while ruling out any near-term easing of currency controls for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":65008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,42,470],"tags":[97,96,6384],"class_list":["post-65007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-central-bank","category-economics","category-santiago-bausili","tag-central-bank","tag-economics","tag-santiago-bausili"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}