The Argentine Mint (CMA), a state company in charge of printing paper money and other public documents, will import banknotes from Paris and Malta, which use subcontracted suppliers in Spain and China, and from Brazil, company spokespersons confirmed to EFE. this Wednesday.
The company, which reports to the Argentine Ministry of Economy, will import 1,000 Argentine peso bills, currently the highest denomination, because its printing plant cannot meet society’s demand due to 104.3% annual inflation.
The CMA opened for next May 2 a tender for up to eight flights from Malta, six shipments from the French capital and another that will arrive from Rio de Janeiro on the following May 3 by sea transfer.
According to sources, the CMA has a printing contract with the Brazilian Mint, Spain’s National Currency and Stamp Factory and China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation.
The transport tenders from France and Malta are due to the fact that their usual suppliers subcontracted the services of companies in those locations and Argentina has to withdraw production from those outsourced firms.
The South American country’s Mint is expressly prohibited from revealing production values and volumes for confidentiality reasons, but it is known that it must resort to importing banknotes due to the lack of paper money.
“The two tenders published by Casa de Moneda to transport banknotes from Europe respond to the fulfillment of the commitments and obligations that this entity has with the Central Bank”, they indicated.
Part of the problem is that the highest denomination bill, issued in November 2017 when Mauricio Macri ruled (2015-2019), was equivalent to just over US$57 at that time, but currently only represents US$4.47 at the official exchange rate and 2.36 in parallel on the black market.
In Argentina, it is expected that in the middle of this year a 2,000-peso bill (US$8.94 at the official exchange rate) will begin to circulate, approved by the Central Bank last February, which will be the highest value in circulation in the middle of the galloping inflation and currency devaluation dragging down the country.
By doubling the value, they hope to reduce the number of bills needed to make purchases and speed up the use of bank ATMs.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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