Through different voluntary exchanges, the Ministry of Finance managed to reconvert $7.84 billion in dollar-denominated instruments, a 52.4% reduction in short-term public debt in foreign currency with Argentine legislation.
The Government announced that it is working on a new regulation of the Law on the Medical Use of Cannabis Plants and their Derivatives, to regulate self-cultivation, the sale of oils in pharmacies, state production and would also expand the pathologies that could treat with the product. A few days ago, they signed an agreement with the municipality of San Nicolás to set up an industrial park exclusively for the activity, which could become an economic motor in the short term, thinking not only of supplying the domestic market but also of exporting a product that costs an average of around $3,000 per kilo.
The mAbxience laboratory, which will produce in Argentina the active ingredient to develop the COVID-19 vaccine together with AstraZeneca for the University of Oxford, belongs to the Insud Group, owned by the entrepreneurs Silvia Gold and Hugo Sigman. Although the pharmaceutical area is the leading business, the Group is very diversified and also has investments in agribusiness, forestry, hotels, film production and publishing. It has more than 8,000 employees, is present in 40 countries and will have a turnover of 1.5 billion euros in 2019.
Below market expectations, July inflation was 1.9% as reported on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC). Variations in regulated and seasonal prices, and low exchange rate volatility helped keep the figure under control. Increases in electronic equipment and household appliances triggered a jump of 3.9% in the heading equipment and home maintenance, which led to the raise of the month.
Santander Argentina led placements of corporate bonds in the local market (Negotiable Obligations, NBs) during the first half of the year. In total, the bank participated in 28 issues, including 53 series of corporate NBs, totalling 84 billion pesos ($1.15 bn) in all operations. The local market for NPOs grew by 170% in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. Santander participated in 85% of the total of these market issues.
Argentina’s crude oil production fell by 2.5% in the first half of 2020, compared to the same period last year. In the first six months of 2020, the quantities of crude oil totalled 14,635,131 cubic metres, in 2019 they accumulated 15,017,396 cubic metres.
While still below pre-pandemic levels, the industry’s installed capacity usage in June rose almost 7 points from May to 53.3%. The most significant increases were in the tobacco, non-metallic minerals and textile industries.
Argentina’s 2020/21 wheat crop would reach 20.5 million tonnes, down from a previous estimate of 21 million tonnes, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in its monthly report on global grain supply and demand. The north and west of Argentina’s agricultural area have been suffering from a significant drought for two months, which has impacted on the development of wheat lots. On the other hand, it kept its forecasts for the 2020/21 soybean crop at 53.5 million tons and corn at and 50 million tons.
The German herbicide company DVA estimates that this year Argentine producers will spend some $2.6 billion on products to prevent weed growth. The figure for the herbicide market is similar to that of 2019. Herbicides make up 65% of what Argentine producers spend on inputs. It is there where it seeks to dispute an increasing portion of the business, for which it launched new products.
Time deposits in pesos from the private sector exceeded 2 billion pesos ($27.39 mn) in the first days of August, a volume that reflects a 40% increase in the last four months since the implementation of Central Bank measures to guarantee minimum returns to savers.
