The Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) has dismissed claims of a reduction in its gold reserves.
The bank clarified that its gold holdings remain unchanged and are not being used to meet the country’s financial obligations.
In an official statement, the BCRA explained that its balance sheet reflects typical financial operations to enhance reserve profitability.
These operations include all assets the BCRA holds and are subject to internal and external auditing.
The statement also directly refuted a private consultant’s report alleging an 11% decrease in gold holdings following a US$2.7 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The BCRA emphasized that payments to the IMF were made as communicated, using bridge loans from CAF (Development Bank of Latin America) and yuan, not gold reserves.
Furthermore, the bank noted that since the launch of an export promotion program covering 18 sectors of the local economy, it has acquired about US$1.053 billion in the foreign exchange market.
The official communication concluded that this acquisition renders it unnecessary to rely on gold reserves, just as it was unnecessary to use them to meet the government’s national commitments.