Argentina’s central bank bought US$369 million during the five sessions ending Friday, 2 October 2026, while households kept buying dollars of their own. The state’s largest weekly purchase since July coincided with a private rush for dollars whose scale remains disputed and whose destination often sits outside the financial system.
The Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA) bought US$70 million on Tuesday, US$160 million on Wednesday and US$93 million on Thursday. Friday added US$35 million. Gross reserves rose US$364 million that day, reaching US$48.653 billion.
The state’s target, the market’s dollars
BCRA purchases in 2026 had reached US$14.696 billion, exceeding the US$10 billion target agreed with the International Monetary Fund. Economy Minister Luis Caputo projected US$19.4 billion in purchases for the year. To hit that figure, the central bank would need to buy about US$5 billion more in three months, a pace iProfesional said the market considered demanding.
The weekly total came after a weaker month. September marked the buying program’s weakest month since it began early in 2026: average daily purchases dropped to US$22 million, down from US$38 million in August and US$137 million in May. The state can set targets and enter the market, but reported figures show it buying while households compete for dollars.
Traders disagreed over where the dollars behind the central bank’s purchases came from. Some pointed to San Juan province, which had raised US$600 million in New York days earlier. Gabriel Caamaño of the consultancy Outlier estimated that much of Wednesday’s purchase had been arranged directly as a block outside the market. The source of that large purchase hasn’t been confirmed.
Companies and provinces placed almost US$3.2 billion in dollar debt in September, and analysts expected more such deals. Those placements may have influenced the supply available to the central bank, but the account doesn’t establish where Wednesday’s purchase came from. The official figures leave that question open.
Households buy; billions leave the system
Households bought US$2.853 billion through banks in August, according to the central bank’s exchange balance cited by iProfesional and Infobae. After sales, their net purchases reached US$2.463 billion, involving about 1.7 million buyers. About US$1.1 billion remained on deposit in local banks.
Three banks told iProfesional that net September sales probably topped US$2.7 billion, though the estimate was preliminary. The central bank hadn’t published its September exchange balance, leaving the figure unconfirmed.
From April 2025 through August 2026, individuals bought US$47.29 billion gross and US$40.34 billion net, Infobae reported, citing central bank data. Many dollars wound up outside the financial system, adding to the US$268.8 billion in “mattress dollars” estimated in June. The figures trace a large flow of household money beyond local bank deposits.
Salvador Di Stéfano argued in iProfesional on 3 October that individuals had bought twice as many dollars as the central bank. He put individual purchases since December 2023 at US$72.9 billion, compared with US$36.5 billion bought by the central bank. For purchases since April 2025, he gave a figure of US$63.8 billion, above the official gross total of US$47.29 billion; his column didn’t identify the data series it used. Even the lower official figure exceeded the central bank purchases he cited for the entire period.
Di Stéfano called the trend benign, pointing to a US$26.8 billion increase in private dollar deposits and US$21.7 billion more in dollar loans. He called a tax on dollar purchases proposed that week by economist Santángelo “a delusion.” Former central bank chief Martín Redrado told iProfesional the open question was whether dollars would cover both debt payments and rising dollarization. Country risk hit a 2026 high of 655 points on Friday, El Economista reported.
The estimates remain unsettled. Analysts quoted by iProfesional disagreed on whether the week’s purchases were a one-off, and October’s buying pace after its first two sessions remained unclear. The central bank’s balance sheet and the disputed sources of its purchases leave the public with numbers—and unanswered questions.