Argentina allowed the peso to devalue by 17% on January 23, 2014, from $6.8 to over $8.0. Immediately, many merchants started raising their prices. The government decried these tactics as unwarranted and pushed to keep prices down. But, aside from the prices of staple foods which were frozen in advance of this, prices on most … Read more
We’ve previously written about Bitcoin, the digital currency that has exploded in popularity (especially in Argentina). It has become a way for Argentines to get their savings out of pesos and for expats and foreigners to take advantage of the blue rate. As Bitcoin has grown in popularity, more real world businesses have started to … Read more
One of our more frequent topics is on the “dolar blue” rate in Argentina. This is the unofficial rate at which the US dollar trades in Argentina. Yesterday it hit a new record high of U$S 1 = ARS $9.40. That’s an 81% difference to the official rate and a great reason never to use … Read more
The “dolar blue” has hit record highs for the past two days following new rules from AFIP (the Argentine tax agency) that imposed additional fees on the use of Argentine credit cards as well as on travel packages purchased in Argentina for travel outside the country. First, AFIP raised the surcharge that Argentines must pay … Read more