Emergency Decree No. 609/2019: The Foreign Currency Proceeds from Exports of Goods and Services Must be Transferred and Sold in the Foreign Exchange Market, and the Purchase of Foreign Currency and its Transfer Abroad Will Require Prior BCRA Approval

The Argentine President in a general agreement of ministers decreed that:

1. until December 31, 2019, the foreign currency proceeds from the export of goods and services must be transferred and sold in the foreign exchange market; and

2. the purchase of foreign currency in the foreign exchange market and its transfer abroad will require prior approval, distinguishing between individuals and legal entities.

In the recitals of the Decree it is mentioned that the measures are “extraordinary and transitory”, empowering the Argentine Central Bank  ( the “BCRA” after its Spanish acronym) to regulate the conditions and deadlines related to their compliance.

Likewise, the BCRA is empowered to establish, through regulations, the necessary measures to avoid “practices and operations aimed at avoiding, through public titles or other instruments” the provisions of the Decree.

Finally, article 2 of Decree No. 596/2019, by which the maturities of certain short-term government debt were deferred, by means of an immediate and staggered deferral of their maturity, without affecting the currency of denomination, principal or interest under the original terms of the issuance, is replaced, in order to contemplate “adequately the different modalities in which individuals are directly or indirectly holders of sovereign bonds included in the scope of that decree”.