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The Central Bank of Argentina imposes new restrictions on purchases abroad

The Central Bank of Argentina imposes new restrictions on purchases abroad

The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) continues its strategy of taking care of the country’s dollar reserves. To this end, on Friday, May 12, he announced a new measure that limits the possibilities of purchasing abroad for residents of the country.

white Communications A7766 They were gift cards or gift cards Issued by companies like Amazon, WalMart, Netflix, Spotify, MasterCard, and many more. They can be purchased – from Argentina or abroad – for credit on these platforms or companies with a code redeemable from anywhere in the world.

The “problem” of the central bank is that the purchase of these cards, possible through platforms such as Mercado Libre or AirTM, among others, Mean escape point for dollars for BCRA reserves. Specifically, the statement adds gift cards to an already existing category of “country-issued credit, purchase, debit, or prepaid cards.”

Excerpt from Argentina's Central Bank statement on gift cards
Part of the Argentine Central Bank statement regarding gift cards. Source: Central Bank of the Argentine Republic

BCRA and the Argentine government are the foundation of it Gift cards are allowed to circumvent some laws. For example, paying a lower exchange rate when purchasing them several months in advance before traveling abroad and for amounts less than $300 (“card dollars” rather than “tourist dollars”) or offering an AFIP money return for visualization at the expense of profits and personal assets in some cases. cases.

Government announcement It caused a stir on social mediaas many users are wondering how to apply the procedure.

How does BCRA know what we’re buying from Amazon is a gift card?The facilities that cryptocurrencies provide to purchase these gift cards Without using dollars

Stocks in Argentina and Bitcoin as a possible solution

This procedure is added to the various stocks to buy dollars and to buy goods and services already in the country abroad. Likewise, it has been added to a very recent one that also restricts the freedom of Argentine citizens in financial matters.

As reported on CryptoNoticias, on May 4, BCRA bans payment processing companies from offering cryptocurrency services. This affected virtual wallets such as Mercado Pago, Ualá, MODO and Prex.

Decisions of this nature highlight the importance of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC).That allows free trade between two people from anywhere in the world, without intermediaries or censorship. While governments trade and conspire against their national currencies, bitcoin remains a decentralized asset and is not under the control of any single person or entity.