After almost ten months of being in an exchange control straitjacket, there are signs that the government of President Javier Milei is taking the first steps to ease restrictions for US dollars and so lubricate foreign trade.

One of the first measures is to allow importers to have a 30-day window in which to settle their invoices, instead of paying on the spot for imports.

Another and more important measure is that the clamp on the official US$ / A$ exchange rate may soon be lifted. This exchange rate permits a controlled devaluation of the local currency, the peso, by about 2% per month in US dollar terms. Upon unifying the official and black market exchange rates, this should allow at least limited access to US dollars which is so important for the financing of foreign trade.

It is not yet clear how markets will react and for such measures to be successful, a run on the local currency will have to be avoided so that internal inflation does not skyrocket, especially after the monthly inflation rate has been pegged back to around 3%.

Beef and leather exports could benefit from these measures but the full impact of the unification of the two-peso exchange rates will have to be observed before any solid conclusions can be drawn.

No official date for the unification of the two exchange rates has been announced, but local observers speculate that it could be as soon as February 2025.