The Argentine peso (ARS) devalued 200% in two years, while the guaraní did not present problems. The devaluation in Argentina has generated the purchase of guaraní and more investments in cryptocurrencies.
Residents of northern Argentina are going to Paraguay to exchange Argentine pesos for guaranies in a parallel market where the currency gets called guaraní blue. This unprecedented initiative arises as a saving alternative to the devaluation of the Argentine peso and the difficulty of purchasing dollars legally.
According to the Ultima Hora agency, Argentines living in Posadas, the capital of Misiones, began to cross the border to purchase Paraguayan currency. This year, the Argentine peso got devalued by 31%, while the guaraní has not changed its value compared with the dollar.
The purchase of this currency happens in Encarnación, a city in Paraguay that is less than an hour from Posadas. The guaraní blue is worth ARS 35 and gets purchased in the informal market called blue. This new saving practice is in addition to alternative investments to the dollar growing in Argentina, such as the purchase of bitcoin.
Argentines are Looking for New Alternatives to Save in the Face of Devaluation
Argentina positioned itself as the second country with the highest devaluation in Latin America since last year, after Venezuela. In two years, the currency got devalued by 200%. In October 2021, the blue dollar almost surpassed ARS 200, while in the same month of 2019, it was worth ARS 66.
These factors mean that Argentines tend to protect their savings in dollars, although, currently, not everyone is authorized to acquire them in a bank. Those who receive government aid or income in the informal market which means around 50% of the population, are exempt.
To prevent the saved pesos from getting devalued, Argentines resorted to purchasing blue dollars in caves or digitally on P2P platforms. Although in any of these media, they find a slightly higher exchange rate (around ARS 198) than the official dollar offered by the bank (ARS 175).
Even investments in bitcoin in Argentina have increased to overcome all these difficulties that the nation is going through. The purchase of other cryptocurrency assets such as decentralized platform tokens (DeFi) has also increased.
According to the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), that country experienced hyperinflation that reached 2,959.8% in 2020.
Statistics in the Caribbean nation are not revealed regularly by the authorities, so much so that the opposition National Assembly created an economic analysis office that calculated inflation at 3,713%.
The fact that the Venezuelan consulting firm Ecoanalítica detailed was that, amid hyperinflation and the greater use of foreign currency as a means of payment, “Venezuelans have observed a severe shortage of funds in local currency.
By: Jenson Nuñez
