No dollar purchases (for locals) unless travelling abroad?

[dennisr]

Dollars not to be had at EZE, 90% rejection rate.

http://economia.iprofesional.com/no...uevos-controles-de-la-AFIP-todava-no-se-notan

http://translate.google.com/transla...n&sa=X&tbo=d&gl=us&biw=1024&bih=645&tbs=qdr:d

 

[syngirl]

There were no announcements, Afip is doing this ipso facto. Did you check on Afip´s site to see if he gets approved?

Husband local, up until now has been approved for purchase of up to 1000USD a month. Yesterday at both Santander and at Citibank (he has accts at both) he was told that NO ONE is authorized from this point forward to buy dollars for savings. The only dollar purchases allowed from this point forward are for travel abroad and then only for the amount approved by AFIP (husband travels 2 weeks out of the month so he'll be taking advantage of his trips to get authorization from now on).

This morning I briefly caught something on C5N regarding the same thing, and saying that as of yesterday this is the case.

According to my mother-in-law all plazo fijos in dollars will have to be converted to pesos upon maturing -- however, I have not seen anything to confirm this so can't tell you if that is rumour or truth.

 

[pez]

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/103332/pesification-sneaked-in-civil-code-reform

 

[sergio]

I don't believe there is anything secure in Argentina. Property or "bricks" used to be the exception but that is less secure than it used to be. Apparently sales are to be pessified. The situation just gets worse and worse. How far can this government go in curtailing freedoms? I honestly never ever imagined that things could get so bad.

 

[John.St]

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/103332/pesification-sneaked-in-civil-code-reform

Less than a year ago I wrote that the present situation is nowhere near 2001 - my apologies, I was absolutely wrong.

"The bill includes the pesification of any contractual obligation assumed in Argentina in dollars or any other foreign currency, with the possibility of cancelling it in pesos according to the official exchange rate."

2001 or 2013 - what's the difference?

 

[allcraz]

Syngirl, what happened to your husband is happening to all of us. I was able to exchange a large amount only up until last month. I posted about it here last month and thought that I couldn't exchange because I had gone on to AFIP's website and put in a figure twice in one month. http://baexpats.org/expat-life/21940-buying-dollars-legally-gets-even-harder-now-3.html But alas, no. I cannot even exchange the equivalent of 1 dollar. It's very hard for me not to get extremely frustrated about it, so I'm not going to write more. But he's not alone.

 

[Kasper Thomas]

I tried all the banks, it seems that you can only get dollars if you go to an exchance place and they charge you big time...

 

[Raymond]

I don't believe there is anything secure in Argentina. Property or "bricks" used to be the exception but that is less secure than it used to be. Apparently sales are to be pessified. The situation just gets worse and worse. How far can this government go in curtailing freedoms? I honestly never ever imagined that things could get so bad.

I have a good friend in real estate and he tells me that prices are collapsing and enquiries are down 90% and the only buyers are sharks looking for distressed sellers. Real estate here is the driver of the economy and if this goes a full blown depression will set in soon

 

[Sockhopper]

I don't believe there is anything secure in Argentina. Property or "bricks" used to be the exception but that is less secure than it used to be. Apparently sales are to be pessified. The situation just gets worse and worse. How far can this government go in curtailing freedoms? I honestly never ever imagined that things could get so bad.

I don't feel that any of our wobbly economies offers a safe harbour any longer. Nor are our constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms sure to be honoured however comforting they appear and feel on paper. Governments will do whatever they might and choose once financial systems, goals and practices legal and illegal fail and so cause them mild embarrassment.

The astronomical bailout of Spain this week achieved no improvement. It just wasn't enough.

The EU just obtained a legal opinion clarifying that it does have power to stop or restrict private atm withdrawals via a bank in one member country from a bank account in another member state, AND between any EU country and one OUTSIDE the EU. That’s like Argentina IF the EU should decide to exercise this power. It sought this opinion because Greeks have been handily depositing their euro in banks in nearby member states - reminiscent of Uruguay, no? If this power is used, it will apply to all countries that use the euro, not just ones about to default. It doesn’t help my confidence when Mme. Legarde of the IMF says that September may or might be some kind of deadline -maybe, perhaps - for correcting this economic mess.

Canadian and US leaders and experts are scared stiff of a deep recession here as a spin-off to recent European events and are warning us to brace ourselves while knowing we don’t have the skills or means to do so. We’ll just have to learn to cope the hard way as Argentines constantly have had to, I suppose.

The provincial government of Quebec last month criminalized participating in or supporting verbally or otherwise any demonstration for any cause as well as the act of criticizing the very law that rendered one’s actual exercise of that precious freedom of expression itself criminal should we take to the streets. I never thought this could happen in my country.
If I'm ranting, this is reason to.

The fines for these shocking and new Quebec crimes are as astronomical at a personal level as the sum of that Spanish bailout is to Europe. This law was passed in response to demonstrations objecting to a 65% rise in higher education fees for public colleges and universities. This was enacted in the same knee-jerk way as Argentina’s successive financial and import controls have been. In NYC and Chicago, the police pushed people in solidarity marches back onto the sidewalks so as to keep traffic moving. Our inability to keep up with inflation is being ignored or scorned.

At least you guys in Argentina can still protest! I might hang some photos of last Thursday’s Recoleta protest on my new walls in whichever country they end up being when we retire in a few weeks. (We gave up on BA after much soul-searching and chose Europe!)

Do any of you have faith in some country I may not have yet considered retiring to legally? I scratched India off my list when its bonds were seriously threatened with downgrading to junk status yesterday afternoon EST and when I saw on TV the hovels from which Astin-Martins are sold there. Nothing is making sense to me. The UAE or Russia, ugh-ugh. It’s got to be somewhere not cold, where drinking something other than vodka, or not covering one’s female head, or wearing perfume doesn’t make one a pariah; and where the food is still natural, fresh, not meat but always fresh, real and healthy.

Some place that doesn’t stop you from accessing your own money or restrict your buying foreign currency to travel abroad. It stings to remember that Argentina isn’t the first country to resort to this tactic. I recall how in the early ‘80’s, England and Wales plus separately, France, did the same. I met plenty of people on holiday in Europe and North America then who had money but couldn’t take it abroad. That restriction gave birth to the ‘package holiday’ industry.

 

[earlyretirement]

People can say what negative things they want about the USA but honestly the quality of life here is still probably the highest in the world. Things are amazingly efficient. Supermarkets are great and have fresh produce, electronics are cheap, great customer service, roads are in great shape, it's very safe and a million other things.

I think the USA right now has the best quality of life vs. most places around the world, especially with the instability in Europe and I think everyone will agree that Argentina certainly isn't a desirable place to live with all these restrictions.