Argentina seeks to draw dollars out from under mattresses

BUENOS AIRES

Argentina's government has announced measures to encourage citizens to bank the billions of dollars they have stashed under mattresses and floorboards as well as in safety deposit boxes and offshore accounts.

Launching the plan under the slogan "Your dollars, your decision," President Javier Milei's spokesman Manuel Adorni said: "It's a new regime that will allow Argentines to freely use their savings, without having to prove where they came from."

Over years of high inflation and currency controls, Argentines traded their battered pesos for dollars, which they often hoarded at home, in cash.

Last year, a tax amnesty brought in billions of dollars in deposits and in April, Argentina received a first tranche of $12 billion from a new $20 billion dollar loan agreed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The plan, which will be formalized in a decree and a bill, builds on the 2024 amnesty.

Banks will be required to accept deposits of up to 100 million pesos (about $90,000) without asking about the provenance of the funds.

Meanwhile, the threshold for transactions that banks must report to tax authorities will be raised more than tenfold.

Adorni denied that the no-questions-asked approach would allow gangs to launder the proceeds of criminal activities.

Milei came to power in December 2023 vowing to fix Argentina's perennially crisis-hit economy by slashing public spending and through deregulation.

Last year, Argentina recorded its first budget surplus in a decade, but purchasing power, employment and consumer spending have fallen.