Little by little, the $2000 bill is incorporated into the daily life of Argentines. Since the end of May, when the banks added the first copies in the ATMs and the highest denomination paper was finding its place in the wallets, the Central Bank (BCRA) has issued 28.8 million units.
This is a total of $57.6 billion, according to the official data published yesterday by the monetary authority, and which were processed by THE NATION DATES. However, that value it is equivalent to barely 1.23% of the total monetary value that circulates on the street.
With relentless inflation, during the three months it took to put it into circulation it lost 21% of its purchasing power. Currently, it represents only US$4.13 (to the MEP dollar). When compared to other countries in the region, it is the highest denomination bill with the lowest value.
Argentina had been demanding a higher denomination currency for some time. Especially in a context where economists project that this year inflation will accumulate an increase of 148%, according to the latest Survey of Market Expectations (REM) of the BCRA. The announcement, expected years ago, finally arrived at the beginning of February. At that time, the Central Bank announced that a $2,000 “commemorative note” would be issued with the figure of professionals Cecilia Grierson and Ramón Carrillo.
The last time the Central Bank decided to add a new note was five and a half years ago, on December 1, 2017, when the denominations were launched. $1000. Today, it is the role that accumulates more prominence. Total, there are 3,677 million units, meaning 44.48% of the total in circulation. A year ago, this figure reached 27.38%, behind $100 (31.24%).
On the other hand, with the data updated to July 3, $100 bills currently represent 20.44% of the total bills in circulation. The rest is distributed among those of $500 (15.91%), $200 (5.41%), $50 (2.65%), $20 (4.91%) and $10 (5.85%). That of $2000 is not even 1% (0.35%).
With the money machine working around the clock, the streets of Argentina are flooded with a total of 8,265.8 million pieces of paper, equivalent to $4.674 billion. Compared to July last year, the number of banknotes increased by 522.2 million pieces (+6.9%), while the nominal value of this stock increased by $1,222 trillion in one year (+39.9%).
“The way in which people make payments in our country has been undergoing an important change towards a greater use of electronic means, a process that has been strongly promoted by the Central Bank through innovative and highly impact, such as Transfers 3.0. While the payment digitization process progresses, this higher denomination bill [$2000] will improve the operation of ATMs and, at the same time, optimize the transfer of cash”, reported the Central Bank in February, thus seeking to justify the delay in launching a new bill.
For merchants and banks, the measure is still not enough and the $2,000 was born old. However, for the moment, the Government is still focused on replacing the images of animals that appear on the $1000 (hornero), $500 (yaguareté) and $200 (southern right whale) bills. With an expected date of July 15, they would be replaced by the portraits of José de San Martín, Manuel Belgrano and María Remedios del Valle, respectively.
