Argentines spend more money abroad than tourists bring in

[MilHojas]

Travel abroad bleeds Argentine coffers as gap with inbound tourism grows - Buenos Aires Herald

An INDEC report shows that the tourist balance in 2025 has so far caused a deficit of almost US$3.5 billion

buenosairesherald.com

 

[Johngwyn]

Time for Milei to learn from his buddy China to do the exit ban on it's citizens.

 

[Ries]

The overwhelming success of this economic model is why Libertarians keep getting elected all around the globe.

 

[antipodean]

How dare these Argentines... spending one's own money in foreign countries is a privilage only for European and North American "expats" who think they have the right to tell Argentines how they should be spending their money... persumably in the snow covered brackish beaches of Miramar...

Anyway outbound tourism levels are at record levels, and Argentine tourists are certainly making the most of Europe at the moment as the number one destination for Argentines.. over 82.000 who left from Ezeiza or Aeroparque in May alone, enjoying an average of 21 nights of vacation there... obviously, despite the doom and gloom on this forum, not every Argentine is having a terrible time.

https://www.indec.gob.ar/uploads/informesdeprensa/eti_06_256083EEBF86.pdf

 

[FrankPintor]

With winter holidays coming up, there will be a mass exodus to places like Buzios and further north, improving the deficit no end Not only that, but I understand the billions stuffed under the mattress are being preferentially used for spending outside Argentina, rather than investment in assets in the country, because, quite reasonably, nobody trusts the government.

 

[ArgentinaVet]

How dare these Argentines... spending one's own money in foreign countries is a privilage only for European and North American "expats" who think they have the right to tell Argentines how they should be spending their money... persumably in the snow covered brackish beaches of Miramar...

Anyway outbound tourism levels are at record levels, and Argentine tourists are certainly making the most of Europe at the moment as the number one destination for Argentines.. over 82.000 who left from Ezeiza or Aeroparque in May alone, enjoying an average of 21 nights of vacation there... obviously, despite the doom and gloom on this forum, not every Argentine is having a terrible time.

https://www.indec.gob.ar/uploads/informesdeprensa/eti_06_256083EEBF86.pdf

Unfortunately, it is the hideously overvalued FX rate that is incentivizing outgoing tourism and killing incoming and domestic tourism. Argentine citizens are simply behaving as rational actors by traveling abroad when it makes more financial sense than traveling domestically. We've seen this movie before about a half dozens times since the 1970's and it always ends the same way.

 

[Ries]

Unfortunately, it is the hideously overvalued FX rate that is incentivizing outgoing tourism and killing incoming and domestic tourism. Argentine citizens are simply behaving as rational actors by traveling abroad when it makes more financial sense than traveling domestically. We've seen this movie before about a half dozens times since the 1970's and it always ends the same way.

FX rate is set by "the market".
"overvalued" is an opinion, and while I agree its ridiculous, obviously the people (and computers) who daily trade FX in the Trillions of dollars (over 7 trillion a day) set the price. Probably only a few billions in Argentine pesos, depending on the day, but still.
Nobody can change the FX price by arguing.
The Milei regime has failed completely to open international trade, currency trading, FX, or banking. Mainly, in my opinion, because the big boys who actually run the country, and control the congress, wont let Milei do much.
The global traders who are willing to buy and sell Argentine pesos have set this rate, daily, based on how much hassle, profit, and liquidity is involved, and based on future expectations, which, also obviously, are pretty low.
No amount of press conferences will change the argentine mindset, that keeping any assets they currently have, either in paper dollars, offshore accounts, or real estate, is safer than hoping Milei will miracuously save the economy this year, or next...

 

[ArgentinaVet]

FX rate is set by "the market".
"overvalued" is an opinion, and while I agree its ridiculous, obviously the people (and computers) who daily trade FX in the Trillions of dollars (over 7 trillion a day) set the price. Probably only a few billions in Argentine pesos, depending on the day, but still.
Nobody can change the FX price by arguing.
The Milei regime has failed completely to open international trade, currency trading, FX, or banking. Mainly, in my opinion, because the big boys who actually run the country, and control the congress, wont let Milei do much.
The global traders who are willing to buy and sell Argentine pesos have set this rate, daily, based on how much hassle, profit, and liquidity is involved, and based on future expectations, which, also obviously, are pretty low.
No amount of press conferences will change the argentine mindset, that keeping any assets they currently have, either in paper dollars, offshore accounts, or real estate, is safer than hoping Milei will miracuously save the economy this year, or next...

The Argentine peso value is not set by "the market". Only individuals (and not businesses; they cannot repatriate dividends, etc) are allowed to purchase foreign currency in any quantity in the official FX market and the Central Bank is bleeding about $2 billion USD per month (most of which came from the most recent IMF loan). In addition, the ROFEX futures market is not open to "global traders" and (to my knowledge )there are no futures contracts available on Argentine pesos available outside Argentina. In fact, the biggest player on the ROFEX right now is the Argentine Central Bank itself which is selling billions of USD in futures contracts in order to manipulate the currency. If you were here in 2018, what is going to happen in late 2025 and early 2026 is going to look very familiar.

 

[Ries]

The unofficial exchange of pesos for dollars would seem to be at least equal, and probably larger, than the amount of purchases on the official market. And the Cuevas do respond to market prices, as well as responding to the governments attempts to influence the price. And if you try to exchange pesos outside of Argentina, the market will certainly not follow Central Bank pricing.
There is a market, that the government has no control over. Its real. And nobody knows how big it is, but a lot of money changes hands.
In real estate transactions, for example, the rate is based on the blue, not the official rate. And its common for money to be transfered from one foreign account to another, and that would apply to some import/export transactions as well, skipping the official infrastructure completely.

But my basic point, that this is a result of big money in Argentina restraining Milei from his attempts to deregulate everything, I still stand behind.
If Milei could, he would throw the economy open to "free market" forces.
The adults in the room, as well as the wealthy in Argentina, think that would lead to chaos, so they wont let him do it, and we have the present slow bleed instead.

 

[Che1990]

Whoever fixes the dollar blue value, not market forces but powerful figures. has been buttered up and is in cahoots with the government, hence it not all over the place.