Argentines seek financial refuge in art
Picasso famously had his blue period. Argentina has its blue dollar – as the black market exchange rate is known. And that’s good news for art collectors and visitors to the ArteBA art fair which kicks off this week.
Managing Argentina’s de facto multiple exchange rates is itself a fine art. But now art itself, among other things, has suddenly become cheap – provided people don’t use the official rate. Continue reading »
Argentina: “Blue dollar” breaks 10 to 1 barrier
It’s been a tough 24 hours for the people who run the Argentine economy.
A day after President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner promised that there would be no devaluation of the peso under her administration, everything seemed to go sideways.
First, the black market dollar – known as the “blue” dollar – broke through the Messi barrier. Continue reading »
Argentina: get ready for the Messi dollar
Argentina has the official dollar, the blue dollar, the sky-blue dollar, the card dollar, and a host of other things in between. But with the unofficial dollar rate at a new high of 9.34 pesos, the Messi dollar could be next.
The gap between that black market rate – known as the “blue” dollar – and the official rate of 5.19 pesos is now above 80 per cent. Continue reading »
Argentina: “blue dollar” hits new high
Watching Argentina’s unofficial exchange rate is suddenly like being at an auction: on Wednesday it has risen breathlessly, hitting 8.75 pesos per dollar. Yesterday it was 8.27 pesos, Monday it was 8.08. And breaching the 8-peso barrier was a milestone in itself. What’s going on? Continue reading »
Argentina’s “blue” dollar blues
Argentines continue sprinting away from their peso as if it were slathered with avian flu virus. After hitting a record high yesterday, the black market (or “blue”) dollar in Argentina hit another high on Thursday, of 7.54 pesos to the dollar, the local daily La Nación reported. Continue reading »
Argentina: black market dollar hits new high
Here’s a timely reminder that Argentina’s problems go far beyond its legal wrangling with its “holdout” creditors.
Wednesday saw another day of intense trading in the unofficial dollar market as Argentines fled from the peso to the US dollar. The black market, or “blue” rate, hit a record high of 7.52 pesos per dollar. That is 52 per cent more than the government’s official rate of around 4.96 pesos per dollar. Continue reading »
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