The Economy Ministry obtained AR$500 billion in an auction where it placed an inflation-adjusted peso bond maturing on February 14, 2025. These BONCER bonds have a 4.2% surcharge and an annual nominal rate of -21.7%.

According to the Ecolatina consulting firm, maturities (paid on the first business day of January) amounted to AR$109.2 billion, resulting in a net positive result of approximately AR$390.8 billion.

Investors placed 471 purchase orders for more than AR$1.5 trillion of the BONCER’s nominal value — three times what the Treasury accepted, AR$500 billion.

On Tuesday morning, before the first bids were received, the Economy Ministry informed that the maximum price of the bond would be AR$2,915.88.

Last week, the Central Bank board decided that the annual benchmark interest rate would be 100% and determined that the minimum annual interest rate for fixed-term deposits would be 110%, a figure well below the inflation rate.

According to Ariel Sbdar, CEO of the COCOS investment app, all Argentine bonds in pesos that adjust for inflation have a negative yield. “Inflation expectation at this moment in Argentina is so high and the interest rate is so far below the expected inflation that bonds are going up in price to capture such inflation,” he said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). However, he added that CER bonds go up to a point and have become very negative yields in real terms.

On Wednesday, the government also launched a bid for the Bonds for the Rebuilding of a Free Argentina (Bopreal, by its Spanish acronym). The bond is designed for importers to pay for their commercial debts and taxes.