It will have a surcharge of 30%. Entrepreneurs will be able to receive the money faster. The objective is to take care of the reserves.
Next week, two variants of the exchange restrictions will begin to operate. On the one hand, the postponed “Qatar dollar” increases the cost of traveling abroad. On the other, a special quote for the payment of services for international artists who perform in Argentina. With this, the list of the different dollars that coexist from the beginning of the limitations is enlarged.
The two measures aim to take care of the reserves of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA). In September, the management of the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, was able to strengthen the entity’s coffers. Now the challenge is to go through the last quarter of 2022, with numerous shows arriving, and a large number of Argentines with the intention of seeing Messi’s last World Cup.
Members of the Argentine Association of Theatrical and Musical Entrepreneurs (Aadet) turned to Massa to obtain a resolution that would allow them to access dollars in a timely manner but at a higher exchange rate.
Dollar for International Shows
The scheme, baptized as “Coldplay dollar” for the series of ten recitals that the British musical group will offer in the country, will be announced in the next few hours. Strictly speaking, it is a differential value for the currencies that are used to pay the fees of international artists who come to perform in Argentina.
The “Country Tax” will be applied to this item. The aliquot would reach 30%, and thus a price close to 200 Argentine pesos would be reached, according to current values.
Businessman Carlos Rottemberg, President of Aadet, pointed out that the most onerous foreign payment is the hiring of international artists. He explained that, “some foreign artists have worked without pay, so it is urgent to be able to unblock this situation. One side of the coin is hiring artists, and the other is that a show, depending on its size, has between 400 and 1,200 jobs behind it, all of which are national.”
In the Argentine Government they estimate that, until the end of the year, about 150 shows with international artists remain to be performed, for which the measure will apply.
More Dollars
This series of measures is complemented by the larger disbursement expected from international organizations in the last quarter, which will help increase net reserves and meet the goals with the IMF for the remainder of the year.
The next stage of the plan that Massa has been carrying out is the most complex: reducing inflation. For this there will be announcements in the coming weeks that aim to consolidate the slowdown in public spending, together with the reduction of the fiscal deficit to 1.9% of GDP in 2023.
Massa will leave on October 12th for Washington, United States, to participate in the joint Annual Assembly of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, after the first of the organizations announced on Friday the approval of the second revision of the Facilities Agreement Extended (EFF).
At the IMF and the World Bank, Massa plans to participate in the work meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, as well as in the activities within the framework of the Development Committee.
By Audy Castaneda
