This Monday, the Central Bank announced the signing of the long-promised swap for US$20,000 with the United States Treasury (which has not yet uploaded an official statement). However, despite the 5-wheel announcement of the elections, the market reacted downward with falls of up to more than 5%. For its part, the country risk closed this Monday at 1089 points.
The dollar rose to $1,495 in Banco Nación and the currency in the wholesale market was only 1% of the ceiling of the intervention band of the Central Bank (BCRA). Financial exchange rates were also on the rise. The MEP dollar was quoted at $1,552.82 (+0.5%). Meanwhile, cash with settlement (CCL) closed at $1,569.99, about $26.30 more than Friday (+1.7%).
In the informality of the caves that operate in downtown Buenos Aires, the blue dollar was traded at $1,505, an increase of $20 compared to last Friday (+1.4%). These advances in prices occurred despite the Government’s efforts to try to ensure that the exchange market reaches October 26 without major shocks.
According to the BCRA statement, unlike the swap with China, the instrument signed with the North American Treasury would not increase the reserves (by US$ 20,000). The agreement does not imply an immediate exchange of currencies but rather when each tranche of the swap is activated.
Milei indicated that “in the event that we cannot enter the capital market because the country risk remains very high, we will make the 2026 payments using the swap line.”
The announcement about the announcements leaves the unknown, not revealed by the Central’s statement, of what the interest rate that Argentina will have to pay for the activated tranches will be. As a reference, the swap between the United States and the European Central Bank pays a rate of 4.32% for short-term operations.
“Debt buyback” with JP Morgan: everything stays in the family
Following the BCRA announcement and after the closing of the day, Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno announced “the beginning of negotiations to carry out a sovereign debt repurchase operation aimed at reducing the country’s financing cost and strengthening investment in education.”
The measure involves repurchasing “Argentine sovereign debt in the market and replacing it with financing at lower rates thanks to the support of multilateral agencies and organizations.”
Do former JP Morgan employees seriously give JP Morgan business? Conflict of interest, I owe you https://t.co/VQs0LsZDvD
— Christian Castillo (@chipicastillo) October 20, 2025
Who will be the new financiers? In his post on X, Quirno states that for its structuring, “JP Morgan has been designated as the bank that will assist us in this process.”
Milei goes in desperate search of bailing out the US in the face of a failed economic plan. The imperial measures, far from benefiting Argentina, seek to “survive” the business of financial capital, to continue plundering the country, guaranteeing the exit of speculators.
It is not that the country “has nothing”, but that its economy is subject to imperialist policies. This Monday, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) released its report on “Argentine commercial exchange of goods.”
This shows an accumulated trade surplus in the first 9 months of the year of US$ 6,030 million. The balance marked a deep decline compared to the same period last year, which had been US$15,075 million, due to the increase in imports driven by the “cheap dollar.” However, exports were greater than imports, giving a favorable balance of dollars that the Government squandered between the “financial scam” and the payment of the odious debt.
Only the left proposes to defend national resources and natural goods to protect them from looting and put them at the service of popular needs. It is necessary to sovereignly reject the debt scam, as well as nationalize banking and foreign trade under the management of the workers. Thus, democratically decide the use of the country’s resources based on the interests of the majority and not of “foreign vultures”, generating employment and taking care of the savings of small savers.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
