Argentine central bank intervenes to contain peso devaluation

The Central Bank (CB) of Argentina on Wednesday threw 20 million U.S. dollars into the foreign exchange market to contain the rise of the green back. With the input, a total of 180 million dollars has been injected since last Thursday, when the peso depreciated by 15 percent in one day, according to the bank. "As it has been happening in the recent days, the CB again controlled the flow of foreign exchange market," said Fernando Rizzo, an analyst with ABC Mercado de Cambios, a local consulting company. The measure is frequently applied according to the "daily flow of purchase and sales in the market," the expert said. The dollar in the official market was sold at 8.04 Argentine pesos at Wednesday noon, but it closed at 8.02 pesos. Meanwhile the "saving dollar," authorized by the government since Monday, reached 9.64 pesos. The dollar in the informal market increased 20 cents compared to Tuesday's closing, reaching 12.70 pesos.