Key facts:
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The announcement could exacerbate de facto dollarization in southern Argentina.
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Service provider takes the measure due to “the difficult conditions of the exchange market.”
At the southern end of the American continent is the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. Argentina and Chile have jurisdiction over that southern territory. Anyone who wants to travel by car, bus or truck to there (or from the island to the mainland), must use a barge (or ferry ferry), which is of vital importance for the connectivity of that region, which has a stable population of close to 200,000 people.
As of June 16, this barge (which makes its way through Chilean territory, although it is mostly used by users from Argentina) will no longer accept Argentine pesos as a form of payment. “Considering the difficult conditions that the local exchange market for the Argentine peso is going through, our company is forced to temporarily suspend, and indefinitely, the receipt of that currency,” reported the company TABSA, provider of the service.
From the mentioned date, It can only be paid using US dollars and Chilean pesos.both in cash and —only for smaller vehicles— by credit or debit cards,
TABSA’s announcement could increase, in the extreme south of Argentina, de facto dollarization that, progressively, is being carried out in the country because of the distrust that exists about the devalued national currency.
The suspension of the Argentine peso as a form of payment for key services such as the barge only exacerbates this dollarization. Many Argentine inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego (and those who travel to that province) will be forced to go to exchange houses to obtain dollars or Chilean pesos, which in turn will contribute to a greater depreciation of the peso.
De facto dollarization and electoral proposals
As CriptoNoticias reported this same year, more and more stores in Argentina express the prices of certain products, for example, imported sneakers, in foreign currencies. In this way, they avoid having to be remarking the prices, which suffer constant increases.
This occurs in an electoral year for Argentina, in which the debate on the dollarization proposal of the candidate for president, Javier Milei, is growing. Public opinion is vehemently expressed for and against this measure.
From the point of view of some bitcoiners, that a country repudiates its own currency is not seen as something negative. For example, the co-founder and director of the investment company Ichimoku Fibonacci, Adam Dubove, expressed himself a few days ago in relation to the debate on the dollarization of Argentina:
«I insist, bitcoiners should smile when we hear this debate. It is not every day that we see a country repudiate its own currency. The rejection of the state’s monopoly on money weakens one of the pillars of the state creed: the ability to make money and loot it through issuance. It is clear that the problem is the quality of the money and the honesty of its issuer.
Adam Dubove, Director of Ichimoku Fibonacci
