BCRA maintained a 40% benchmark rate (the monetary policy decision will be monthly)

The Central Bank (BCRA) kept its key rate unchanged at 40% on Tuesday, in a period of strong inflationary pressures and financial turbulence.

The agency pointed out that "will maintain the current contractionary bias of monetary policy". He reiterated that "the high-frequency indicators show an acceleration of inflation in June" and estimated that this "reflects the direct and indirect effects of the recent instability of exchange rates ".

The monetary authority also announced that it was changing the frequency of the monetary policy meeting to once a month instead of twice a month and added that the next press release on the interest rate will be August 7.

He also informed that the results of the vote of the members of the Monetary Policy Council will be published in the communiqués.

Another novelty is that the entity has begun to monitor "a broad monetary base, which includes all the liabilities of the BCRA with banks (net, LELIQ and LEBAC owned by banks) and the Treasury 2020, admitted to integrate a part of the reserve requirements. "

This broad monetary base shows a growth of 27, 6% over one year, compared to the 46.9% reached in May of last year, said the BCRA.

In mid-June, Luis Caputo was appointed president of the monetary authority instead of Federico Sturzenegger, t a financial crisis that in May led the country to seek help from the Fund International Monetary Fund (IMF).