Money in Argentina

Argentina's economy is very complicated, and I haven't figured it all out yet, so I won't go into it.

However, I wanted to explain a rather crazy concept here.
At the time of writing, 1 euro is equivalent to 376 Argentine pesos (ARS).

I just ate at a restaurant, which cost me 4500 ARS or 12 euros.

EXCEPT that! It seems that Argentines are not allowed to buy more than $200 or $300 a month.

I'm going to mix euros and dollars in this text. But they're roughly equivalent.

Given the country's current economy, where inflation has risen to +100%. Argentines find more stability in the dollar, and to avoid losing too much money, they are looking to exchange their ARS into dollars.

Except that with the monthly limit put in place by the government, a parallel market is in force. It's called the blue dollar! Where the dollar (or euro) is much more highly valued than the ARS, because the demand from Argentines to get their money out is so great.

What does that mean for us expats out there?

It's worth noting that this market is considered illegal, but everyone uses it and the government knows about it. Many systems have made it a lucrative business, with Western Union dominating the market.

But for us expats, this means above all that the conversion rate of our euros into ARS is more than 2 times more attractive.

In other words, 1 euro is equivalent to 779 ARS.

My lunch, instead of costing 12 euros, cost me 5€.

This is a real game-changer in many respects.

The problem with this system is Western Union. On paper, it's very easy. You send yourself 200 euros, for example, and go to a Western Union office to withdraw 150,000 ARS (roughly). And voila, you're twice as rich as when you arrived.

So my first experience with Western Union didn't go so well. First of all, setting up an account is an experience in itself, but nothing to write home about. Then there's the question of sending money from your bank account.

I have 2 accounts, a business account and a personal account.

My pro account doesn't work, because I've learned that it's impossible to send money with a pro account.

My personal account didn't work either, because ... I don't know.

That's thanks to direct payments on the platform, but fortunately it's also possible to make a bank transfer to achieve the same result.

Once you've received the money, you have to go to a Western Union office. Since some of the population does the same thing, there's always a crazy queue. It takes at least 30 minutes.

After that, other conditions must be met, including :

• The WU office must have sufficient funds.
• The WU system has to work (which was not the case today).
• All information must be EXACTLY correct. A small error and you'll be refused withdrawal of your money.
• Remember your identity card/passport
• You also need the transaction display.

So on paper, very interesting, the experience itself is not the most enjoyable. So it's a good idea to make more substantial withdrawals, so you don't have to do it every week. But this means keeping a substantial sum of money at home.

It's also worth noting that we're currently between 2 rounds of presidential elections. There are still 3 candidates in the running. And whoever comes first in the first round is considering changing the country's currency to the dollar.

The result of the presidential election will be announced on October 22, 2023. So we don't know how long all this will last. What will become of Argentina's currency? This goes a long way to explaining the country's instability.

And inevitably, if the situation remains as it is. The next question is quite simply, can I buy pesos with the blue dollar, and sell my pesos to recover euros at the normal market price? In theory, it's possible, but what about in reality?