Crédito
The Crédito (Spanish for credit or credibility ) was an Argentine complementary currency, which, at a flea market found its beginning in Bernal, Buenos Aires Province on 1 May 1995.
The operator of the currency was the " Red Global de Clubes de Trueque Multireciproco " ( RGT ), also called " Global Network of Multi- Reciprocal Exchange Clubs " or " Global Exchange Network" ( GEN).
The currency began as an exchange circuit, but was quickly replaced by printed currencies. In accordance with further experiments with a " Nodine " Tauschkreis (no dinero, no money ) were Créditos ultimately distributed as printed currency.
The RGT was organized as a network of barter clubs with participants from an educated middle class, who lost their jobs in the late 1990s by the Argentine crisis.
The clubs of the RGT were not centrally organized and had no central rules. Each club decided for themselves which Créditos other clubs he accepted and not all clubs gave their own Créditos from. Clubs who spent Créditos, presented usually 30 to 50 Créditos from per participant. At a later stage, some clubs grouped into zones and networks, the zones were the editors of Créditos. The unplanned structure of the system allowed a very rapid growth, but they also made the system vulnerable to counterfeiting.
The Crédito was an interest-free currency which should be the Argentine peso equal in value, which in turn was linked to the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar. Estimated 400 million U.S. dollars of goods and commodities were traded in 2000 with Créditos. A survey, which was conducted by members of the Economic Institute at Harvard University, gave a personal, average exchange rate of two Créditos for a peso (2002-2003) by participants who offered goods or services in two currencies.
In July 2002, the unemployment rate had risen to over 20 percent in Argentina and about seven percent of the population used the Crédito. Argentina had been in the six years prior to an unemployment rate of about 17 percent.
The system was used in all provinces of Argentina and had for a limited time an acceptable reliability. As the situation of the national economy deteriorated further, however, the number of participants in the RGT clubs rapidly increasing and a growing percentage was Créditos from without offering sufficient goods or services. The system suffered from hyperinflation and fakes. Between 2002 and 2003, the government extended the unemployment of 0.2 million previously authorized to 2.5 million beneficiaries, paving the peso a population shift back as cash available, the Créditos used, but had a 89 percent preference for the peso.