Yes, Argentina Can (and Should) Ditch the Peso and Its Central Bank
Official dollarization would ratify the choices made by most Argentines in their own affairs.
November 29, 2023
News Article
Official dollarization would ratify the choices made by most Argentines in their own affairs.
Javier Milei’s victory in Argentina’s presidential election was a resounding endorsement of dollarization for Argentina. Official dollarization would ratify the choices made by most Argentines in their own affairs (especially when it comes to larger transactions, whether buying a house or a household appliance) and end two decades of currency depreciation, inflation, and high interest rates. It would also make Argentina’s central bank, the Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA), redundant.
Yet the opinion persists among many economists that Argentina lacks the funds to dollarize at prevailing exchange rates (about 350:1 officially). Without more dollars or a massive devaluation of the peso, they say, dollarization is impossible. We disagree: Argentina has all the dollars it needs to dollarize officially and eliminate the BCRA.
The balance sheet of the BCRA consists of foreign reserves and domestic credit assets, while its liabilities include the monetary base, government deposit accounts, and several kinds of short-term debt securities. The BCRA’s liabilities totaled 63,800 billion pesos as of November 23.
