The central bank in Argentina has finally relaxed forex (foreign exchange) regulations in favor of local IT firms, allowing service exporters to buy foreign currency at the official exchange rate.
The banking regulator also freed freelance professionals working remotely for foreign companies from exchanging their salaries paid in dollars.
The news comes a month after suspicions arose that local IT firms could be parking a larger portion of their export earnings in bank accounts abroad instead of repatriating them to Argentina.
The previous regulations required service exporters to convert all their greenbacks into Argentinian pesos at the official exchange, which gave them 106 pesos for 1 US dollar, while the parallel exchange gave 205 pesos. This wide difference between the official exchange rate and the parallel exchange rate forced many freelancers to abandon their local employers for a position in a foreign firm that paid in US dollars.
Such a practice dealt a devastating blow to the country’s economy, already hit hard by the volatile forex market and skyrocketing inflation.
Moreover, undeclared revenue from technology exporters exceeded US$2.2 billion, according to Bloomberg.
“The benefit extends to companies in the sector that will have unrestricted access to foreign currency for a percentage of the increase in foreign sales they make this year compared to 2021,” reported Xinhua, citing a statement from the regulator.
Read More:Argentina’s Service Exporters Get Boost from Forex Law
2022-06-06 19:15:48
