Welcome to the Club Dolar Qatar y Coldplay!

[Quilombo]

If you want to put it like that, ok... but it's a bit obvious that the "super minister" Sergio Massa recognizes that the current exchange policy is unsustainable, and he's looking for ways to devalue, without it being said that he devalued....I'm not sure what your problem is?

My problem is that it causes an incredible micro and macroeconomic distortion. There are currently 14 exchange rates, and while I agree that everyday there's another split we get 1 minute closer to midnight, it's hell until we get there, and makes the eventual correction that more painful for the people who least can afford it.

I'm not an economist, but you don't have to be one to see the problems this is causing.

Nothing works right now, even the things the government says it wants to accomplish is hamstrung. You can't export value added goods if the producers don't have the inputs, and the ones that do are forced to impose 6 month terms on their suppliers for payment, something I'd never accept from any of the people or companies I do work for. How are we supposed to increase inbound tourism if the planes leaving the country are empty? Unlike AeroCampora, United, LATAM, Delta, etc. can't get direct transfers from the Treasury Department if they run out of money.

A country can only rob Peter to pay Paul for so long, and the entire dollar market here is basically a giant Ponzi scheme that is getting more destructive the longer it goes on.

Every time, and I mean every time the government has had a black market here for dollars it has ended in one way and one way only: the official exchange rate and the black market exchange rate unified, or the Argentine currency entirely disappeared.

The government last nighted admitted the true value of a dollar was $314 pesos, and the brecha is currently 2:1. That gap won't decrease the longer this keeps up, and the way we're headed now is going to make December 2015 look like a walk in the park.

My family rents a business that's tied to the official rate. i'm waiting for the devalue to occur to be able to bump up our disposable income quite a bit.

I know everyone joked about the (lack of) "lluvia de inversiones" when Macri was president, but the brecha wasn't 100% when Cristina left office, so I actually believe people would look to invest here more now than before simply by eliminating the hurdles to doing so, hell, maintain the byzantine system with AFIP, you'd still see growth instead of people looking to get every centavo out of Argentina the second they can at unfavorable exchange rates.

 

[quilleroarg]

Effective midnight tonight, we will have two new dollars in town: the Dólar Qatar and Dólar Coldplay.
Naturally, as Peronism is the most rational and normal economic management style on earth, one requires
a brief explainer regarding the changes:

Purchases made abroad with debit/credit cards (up to $299.99 USD/month):

You will now have a monthly cuota of up to $299.99 a month to make purchases at the current dólar tarjeta exchange rate.

As of Tuesday, October 11th at 20:00 this is $1 USD = $274.75 ARS

Example: Wendy's at IAH; $8.77 USD = $2,409.56 ARS

IMPORTANT: To avoid the Dólar Qatar rate you MUST NOT EXCEED $299.99 IN MONTHLY PURCHASES, THE SECOND YOU
PASS IT WILL RESULT IN ALL PURCHASES, INCLUDING ONES YOU MADE AT THE CHEAPER DOLAR TARJETA EXCHANGE
RATE TO CONVERT TO THE DOLAR QATAR RATE

Purchases made abroad with debit/credit cards (Over $299.99 USD/month):

If you exceed $299.99 in purchases per month ALL your purchases, including those already made before hitting $300 will be charged
at an exchange rate of the BCRA exchange rate x2.

As of Tuesday, October 11th at 20:00 this is $1 USD = $314.84 ARS

Example: You're in Miami and you pick up a new iPhone; $999 USD = $314,525.16 ARS

Airline tickets, boat tickets, hotels, cruises, general tourism etc. abroad paid for in pesos:

You will now pay an exchange rate of the BCRA exchange rate x2.

As of Tuesday, October 11th at 20:00 this is $1 USD = $314.84 ARS

Example: You use Despegar to book a room at a hotel in Montevideo for one night; $87.33 = $27,494.98 ARS

An international artist comes to preform in Buenos Aires and you buy a ticket to their show:

TBD; it's hard to say since we don't know what the cost of the tickets are in dollars normally, tickets will now be subject to the 30% PAIS tax.

As of Tuesday, October 11th at 20:00 this is $1 USD = $204.65 ARS

FAQs:

I already made purchases abroad, bought tickets abroad, or bought a ticket to the Coldplay concert. Will I have to pay any extra taxes now?

No, it is NOT retroactive. If you want to purchase any of the above mentioned things I recommend doing so within the next 3.5 hours.

Are the increases legal?

Yes, as is the case previously, the courts ruled that as this is a tax which congress passed giving the executive branch legal authority to increase at will.

Can I apply for a refund for the Bienes Personales portion if I am exempt?

Likely yes, but given that inflation is approaching over 100%/year what you get back in real terms will be a lot less that what you paid. (The government is basically getting negative interest loans from people using the Bienes Personales).

Does the $300 monthly limit rollover? Do purchases of dollars for savings or plane tickets impact my cuotas as well?

We don't know yet, and if there is roll over, it will only be in one direction, i.e. if you don't buy anything this month you wont have a franchise of $600 next month, that's for damn sure, and I wouldn't be surprised if you spend $400 this month your cuota is reduced to $200 the next. I also assume that purchases of tourism goods/services abroad will also deduct from your franchise, but we'll again have to wait to see.

Should I use my dollars instead of pesos now when paying for goods and services abroad or making travel plans?

It honestly depends on what exchange rate you're getting and how many dollars you've spent this month in pesos; i.e. if the blue/WU rate exceeds the official exchange rate x2 then it is cheaper to pay in pesos.

What will happen to Blue and WU exchange rates?

They'll likely go up tomorrow, but by how much it's hard to say.

What's the impact overall for us?

WU is currently giving $303.60 ARS/$1 which means if you're going to spend over $300, i.e. buying a ticket to Miami, you're probably better to pay on the US website at least until the market, both blue and CCL (for which WU is based) adjust to the new cepo.

This post deserves a year of free medialunas

 

[antipodean]

In a market with multiple exchange rates, which like it or not is part of a globalized world, real prices will always follow the highest rate.
Political masquerading to find any way to avoid calling a spade a spade simply to avoid admitting failure is as pathetic as it is pointless.

 

[FrankPintor]

"Argentina in its labyrinth" from the Economist at https://archive.ph/3JCEF

There was an article (https://jacobin.com/2019/06/argentina-macri-imf-austerity-kirchner) and a thread here with the same name https://baexpats.org/threads/argentina-in-its-labyrinth.41293/page-2 which are interesting to read in today's context.

 

[MilHojas]

New taxes slapped on concerts, spending on cards overseas

Aiming to "protect reserves for production and job creation,” the National Government introduces new levies to discourage purchases in dollars with debit and credit cards; New measures affect foreign currency purchases in excess of US$300, trips abroad and luxury goods.

www.batimes.com.ar

 

[tom borland]

I'm a bit lost... we bought tickets for Coldplay (the promoter, All Access, is farting about with supposedly having converted the tickets into digital tickets, without notification, and with broken links and rejected purchase codes, but that's beside the point). We paid in pesos, of course, as we have for all of the other concerts / "recitales" we went to here, Karol G, J Balvin, Romeo Santos... what exchange rate is involved here?

Frank, on a side note, have you received your Coldplay tickets electronically yet? I bought tickets for 11/4 online from Viagogo expecting to be mailed paper tickets and they have now told me to expect an email from the promoter with digital tickets since they are being converted. I live in Hawaii and I'm nervous about flying all the way down without my tickets in hand

 

[FrankPintor]

Frank, on a side note, have you received your Coldplay tickets electronically yet? I bought tickets for 11/4 online from Viagogo expecting to be mailed paper tickets and they have now told me to expect an email from the promoter with digital tickets since they are being converted. I live in Hawaii and I'm nervous about flying all the way down without my tickets in hand

We had to create an account with the email we gave when purchasing the tickets on the Viagogo website, and once the account was set up, there was a "Your Events" area to see and download the tickets

We had an extra complication in that for some reason the email we gave originally was incorrect, so we couldn't associate the Viagogo account with the ticket purchase, and this had to be sorted out in person at the La Rural ticket kiosk on Plaza Italia. I hope you can sort your tickets out.