Central Bank of Argentina
The Argentine Central Bank ( BCRA ) (Spanish: Banco Central de la República Argentina ) is the central bank of Argentina. It has its headquarters in the capital, Buenos Aires.
Overview
The Argentine Central Bank was founded by six laws of the National Congress on 28 May 1935, and replaced the Argentine currency board that had existed since 1890. Its first president was Ernesto Bosch, who held the office from 1935 to 1945.
Its headquarters on Calle San Martín 275 in the San Nicolás neighborhood was originally designed by the architect Henry Hunt and Hans Schroeder in 1872 as headquarters of the Banco Hipotecario. The building with elements of the Italian Renaissance was completed in 1876. After moving the Banco Hipotecario the Plaza del Congreso 1940 and the expansion and modernization of the building moved in 1942, the central bank here.
Normally, the Argentine economy minister downstream of the central bank took during the debt crisis of Latin American countries play a central role, as she sat Circular 1050 into force in April 1980. Result, the financial sector should be protected from the costs if payments suddenly devalued peso done. He had, however, the bankruptcy of thousands of homeowners and business results in the binding of the mortgages to the value of U.S. $ s, the increased relative to the peso to 15 times, as Central Bank President Domingo Cavallo in July 1982 reversed the Circular 1050.
During the validity of the Ley de Convertibilidad with which the Argentine currency was pegged to the U.S. $, the BCRA was responsible to keep foreign exchange in relation to the monetary base stock. Since the repeal of the law in January 2002, the devaluation of the peso and loss of purchasing power, the role of the central bank primarily in the formation of monetary reserves to control the exchange rate. The BCRA buys U.S. $ on the market to compensate for the surplus in foreign trade and to keep the official exchange rate of 3.80 pesos per dollar, as this is considered to be favorable for competitive exports and import substitution industrialization useful for.
In late 2005, the former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner vowed the Argentine government debt to the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) to be repaid in one payment. This payment, made on 3 January 2006, the central bank reserves fell by U.S. $ 9.5 billion, about a third of the reserves.
The BCRA continued to intervene in the foreign exchange market generally through the purchase of U.S. $, so that the reserves in September 2006, more than 28 billion U.S. dollars reached, more than prior to the repayment to the IMF, and at the end of the same year, 32 billion the U.S. $, respectively. The exchange rate was relatively undervalued, caused by the role of the BCRA as a buyer.
In October 2006, the Global Finance magazine rated the Governors Martín Redrado with D in its assessment of central bankers. The magazine stated, " Redrado missed the opportunity to dampen inflation, when the economy grew at the fastest ... with inflation, which is expected to reach 12 % in 2006, compared with 7.7 % in 2005 and 4.4 % in 2004. " In fact, the inflation rate reached 9.8% in 2006, but the population they perceived to be higher due to the composition of the basket.
Since 2008, the central bank holds foreign exchange reserves 47-50 billion U.S. $.
Aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008 prompted the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to seek domestic financing for growing public spending as well as for debt service. Kirchner therefore ordered the opening of an account in the amount of 6.7 billion U.S. $, with the central bank, which should be supplied by the foreign exchange reserves, which caused the resistance of Redrado. On 7 January 2010, he was thus deprived of his office. The Minister of Economy Amado Boudou announced first, Mario Blejer ( who has previously expressed its support for the measure) would be appointed as the next Governor. Redrado but was then on February 3, replaced by Mercedes Marcó del Pont, by then President of the National Bank.
Redrados deposition was censured by the opposition, which, in reference to the nominal independence of the central bank, had doubts about the legality of the decision.