He Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) this Thursday completed its largest foreign currency purchase in more than a year, by acquiring US$281 million in the market. With this result, the monetary authority accumulates in 2026 about US$5,000 millions, although this flow was not directly reflected in a sustained increase in reserves. Even so, the stock It was once again above US$45,000 million after the strong daily income.
The amount traded represents the highest of the year – exceeding US$214 million in February– and the highest since February 7, 2025when purchases had exceeded US$300 million.
Since the implementation of the new monetary scheme in January, the BCRA incorporated US$4,964 million, which is equivalent to almost 50% of the annual goal defined by the economic team. In March alone, acquisitions totaled US$1.67 billion.
This way, Javier Milei’s advance seems to be fulfilledwhen he told Bausili, head of the Central Bank: “Get ready, Santiago, because dollars are going to come out of your ears.”
The president’s phrase was during Argentina Week and in reference to the rain of dollars that he anticipated for this time of year, when foreign currency from the large harvest enters.
The BCRA has already purchased almost 50% of the annual goal
However, this positive result was partially neutralized by the demand for Treasury dollars to meet maturities in foreign currency. In this way, a good part of the foreign currency purchased was used to pay debt and was not able to be consolidated as reserves.
To sustain the pace of intervention, the Central issued pesos without sterilizationwhile the Treasury placed debt in local currency to absorb liquidity and avoid a greater impact on the monetary base, inflation and the exchange rate.
Official projections estimate that The net balance of purchases could be between US$10,000 and US$17,000 million in 2026depending on the demand for pesos and the availability of foreign currency. In that sense, the head of the BCRA, Santiago Bausili, stressed that the accumulation will be conditioned by these variables. So far, progress has reached 49% of the annual goal.
At the close of the last day, international reserves were located at US$45,152 millionafter a daily increase of US$375 millionmainly explained by currency purchases and asset valuation.
It is worth remembering that At the end of February, the stock had reached US$46,905 million, the highest level since 2018. Since then, the variations reflect both external debt payments and changes in the valuation of assets – such as gold -, in a context influenced by the crisis in the Middle East.
Between December 31, 2025 and March 31, 2026, the BCRA bought US$4,382 million in the exchange marketsubscribed a repo for US$3,000 million and recorded net profits of US$575 million as a result of price variations.
Nevertheless, One-year liabilities grew by US$4,206 million due to that same repo -expiring in January 2027- and an additional installment of a previous agreement. Added to this was that the Treasury acquired US$3,659 million to meet debt commitments, which left the net accumulation of reserves practically unchanged in the first quarter, as explained by economist Federico Machado.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, the outlook appears more favorable: financial obligations would be reduced to about US$3.2 billion—almost half of what was paid in the previous three months—and a greater income of foreign currency is expected from the liquidation of the coarse harvest.
“Dollars through the ears”: is Milei’s warning true?
The Central Bank The traditional golden time of the year began: the liquidation of the coarse harvestwhich brings an abundance of dollars to the reserves, unless it is a dry season.
It was in this context that during the Argentina Week held in New York, Javier Milei told Santiago Bausilli that “dollars would come out of his ears.”
This year, dollars will abound: according to estimates from private consulting firms, The supply of foreign currency would reach US$40 billion. A record only comparable to the 2021-2022 campaign.
The difference with that year is that in 2026, Argentina could reach a trade surplus of 20 billion dollars.
Such a performance would have a side A and a side B: the first, exports that will approach US$100,000 million. On the other, a less epic side, with imports punctured due to the recessionary climate of the economy.
During this month of April, Santiago Bausili will buy all the dollars he can. The central banker wants to meet the reserve accumulation objective, something that has been delayed for now.
All the currencies that the BCRA was purchasing since the beginning of the year were used to pay the external debt.
For what is to come, not only the harvest plays in its favor. There is also coming a time of lower debt maturities in hard currencywhich will allow the monetary authority to keep dollars in its coffers.
