Argentina Adds Another Exchange Rate With ‘SME Dollar’

The special exchange rate for small and medium-sized enterprises will launch from October 9 and will be applicable to 25% of such companies’ export revenues

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Buenos Aires — Argentina’s Economy Minister and the ruling coalition’s presidential candidate Sergio Massa continues looking for ways to contain the exchange rate tension, and has announced a new exchange rate for small and medium-sized companies that will allow them to exchange 25% of their export revenues at that rate, mechanism that until now had been enabled for soybean and fuel exports.

The so-called ‘SME dollar’ that allows 25% of the revenue at the free exchange rate - currently around 900 pesos - will launch on October 9, Massa said Wednesday in a meeting with representatives of that business segment.

In his presentation during an event organized by the Argentine Confederation of Medium-Sized Companies (CAME), Massa said: “Just as we have provided incentives for soybean exports in relation to the increase of export volumes against liquidation, as from Monday SME exports will also have the 25% entry incentive in order to guarantee greater volume and entry flow, which will somewhat accelerate the process of Argentine exports”.

The move extends to SMEs the same benefit that had been granted to the soybean sector since from October, following an extension of the validity of the so-called ‘soybean dollar’, and which also applies to gas and oil exports, the latter having been dubbed the “Vaca Muerta dollar”, alluding to the country’s shale play.

The measures aim to boost the inflow of foreign currency and ease the pressure on the exchange rate.