Loading…
Loading…
DNU 269/2025 formally ends the cepo cambiario — Argentina's system of administrative foreign-exchange restrictions — by repealing Decreto 28/2023 in its entirety and issuing new rules governing FX access. The regime it replaces had itself been a consolidation of restrictions that originated under Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in November 2011, partially lifted by Macri (2015–2019), restored by Macri in September 2019 under IMF pressure, tightened progressively under Alberto Fernández (2019–2023), and somewhat relaxed again in the December 2023 Milei transition via Decreto 28/2023's 80/20 MULC mechanism.
Key operative provisions:
1. Export-proceeds channelling — the mandatory 80% MULC / 20% bond-linked split for agricultural and other exporters (the so-called "BLEND dollar" or "dollar blend") is eliminated. Exporters may settle 100% of proceeds at the official rate within the new band.
2. Individual access — the USD 200/month purchase cap and the USD 500/month cross-border wire-transfer ceiling for Argentine residents are removed. Access is now unlimited at the market rate within the band.
3. Dividend and profit repatriation — non-resident-controlled companies may repatriate dividend and profit flows accrued from 1 January 2025 onwards, without prior BCRA authorisation. The prior PEPC (Programa de Incremento Exportador / Restricciones al MULC) rules that had blocked repatriation are dissolved.
4. FX-band float — the daily managed crawling peg (which had been running at ~2% monthly devaluation) is replaced by a band with a floor of ARS 1,000/USD and ceiling of ARS 1,400/USD. BCRA can purchase below the floor and sell above the ceiling; within the band the peso floats freely. The band is designed to compress over time as the programme achieves its fiscal primary surplus targets.
5. Import and service payments — the SIRA (Sistema de Importaciones de la República Argentina) administrative pre-authorisation queue for productive-sector imports and service-payment access is dissolved; payments are processed at the market rate as they fall due.
6. IMF EFF coordination — the decree was signed simultaneously with the IMF Executive Board approval of the USD 20bn Extended Fund Facility, with USD 15bn of free-availability disbursements in 2025. The IMF programme provides the reserve anchor for the band-float credibility.
RIGI (Law 27.742, July 2024) includes a statutory 30-year currency-stability guarantee for qualifying large investments (≥USD 200m). Under the prior cepo regime, this guarantee was partly hollow because BCRA administrative controls could still restrict the specific cross-border transfers that RIGI nominally protected. DNU 269/2025 removes those underlying restrictions, making RIGI's FX-stability provisions operationally meaningful for the first time. The mining, LNG, and infrastructure megaprojects that have registered under RIGI since July 2024 now have unrestricted dividend-repatriation and capital-flow access from day one of commercial operations, not merely a legal promise that the prior administrative architecture would have constrained.
The CCL (contado con liquidación) and MEP spread over the official rate collapsed from over 170% (as of Q4 2024) to under 5% within weeks of the announcement, as the parallel and financial-dollar markets converged to the new official band. The "blue" informal rate similarly collapsed to within the band. ARS/USD forward contracts repriced to reflect the band midpoint trajectory rather than a step-devaluation scenario.