Economy The 3 reasons that pushed the MEP dollar below $1,200 for the first time in four months - Infobae

[Wally]

i'd say like 1.6x from the signs i've seen, but i never go to places with high prices. i ate my 2nd-best-ever Lomito last weekend with a buddy from the pool/gym, and we paid 32,000 Pesos for a MASSIVE amount of food, probably 3 people eating to max, and a 2.25L soda, plus tip, on a Sunday, in a suburb called Godoy Cruz at a nice family parilla. so about $12 USD per person maybe at that MEP rate then? still "expensive" but man was it fantastic and i ate so much i wasn't hungry for the next meal 😛


i've thought about trying to have my lady bring back a flexible panel to try it out. i know the most ideal setup would be in sunny Mendoza to have 2 panels or whatever it takes per Split a/c unit, then you could heat and cool as needed since it's completely sunny like 300 days out of the year here. for sure when subsidies are fully gone, in the interim between local small-scale nuclear, Solar could be a thing! what Argies need really is just dual-pane glass, insulation, and caulking hahahahahah


when i get a second place, i would love to host your fam on a trip here. or if you end up here for business, the lower level is yours, no worries...my father-in-law cancelled on coming here this year, so it's not luxurious but we have a nice place and of course the best dog to have coffee with in the morning : )


always are deals, if you don't buy impulsively and have a mind for savings. and yes going to expensive restaurants is expensive, but cooking is overwhelmingly cheap in 95% of cases. flour, beans, stew beef, eggs, sugar, etc. are fantastically cheap in Dollars (which every Argie has saved)



eh, supply and demand follows the law of scarcity; there obviously are enough people, otherwise the restaurant wouldn't be open. we can't have it both ways; no tourists anywhere and BsAs is a poor wasteland, but also luxury restaurants and cafes are charging high prices. the contradiction is due to one of those premises being wrong 😛


sure thing, checking meow...maybe you can do the rough numbers (see attached), hopefully i'm not doxxing myself, since radical leftists have a penchant for trying to destroy people's lives over political opinions 🤐

we don't have a Rates problem here, we have a TAX problem...part of that 259k Pesos is 79k Pesos in taxes!!! what is that, like 30%????


today's update 28Mar2025 is:

Blue 1280-1300
Official 1043-1103
MEP 1299.77 (almost exactly the psychological/arbitrary 1300!)
Crypto 1313
and Santander's "Dólar MEP" instant convert 1291-1299 (Venta/Compra)

Wow electricity rates there are even more than BA. And the government is not done removing subsidies so it will go even higher. Maybe for an American it is ok but that is a lot for an Argentine to spend. Solar seems like it would be a good idea in sunny Mendoza. Not sure how much they would kill you on import taxes.

...and for those who are about to get their DNI, check out the sweet perks - never go to a Cueva again! just have a Dollar account, and when rates are good, sell USD to buy ARS. attached screenshot of how easy it is. anyone else in the oldtimer group have a better bank/system for getting Pesos? i don't need Pesos that much, but this has been working great for me the past year (attached screenshot)

It is convenient but most people don't declare a fraction of their real income. Mostly the cash is so nothing shows up on paper.

Wow that electricity rate is not cheap! That makes it about 24 cents per kwh yes? That is USA prices. Heck even more than some states here.
That seems very high for locals that don't make much. What is the local reaction? $200 USD bill in your place that you said isn't too big? I could easily see like $500 US bills in bigger places?


But my Argentine friends do not like doing anything through their banks because the government sees all of that. They just use cash. Not because it is a better rate but more for privacy reasons they tell me.

You beat me to it Uncle Wong. Correct. Government can see all your banking activity and also credit card spend so many just use cash to avoid that.

 

[earlyretirement]

i'd say like 1.6x from the signs i've seen, but i never go to places with high prices. i ate my 2nd-best-ever Lomito last weekend with a buddy from the pool/gym, and we paid 32,000 Pesos for a MASSIVE amount of food, probably 3 people eating to max, and a 2.25L soda, plus tip, on a Sunday, in a suburb called Godoy Cruz at a nice family parilla. so about $12 USD per person maybe at that MEP rate then? still "expensive" but man was it fantastic and i ate so much i wasn't hungry for the next meal 😛


i've thought about trying to have my lady bring back a flexible panel to try it out. i know the most ideal setup would be in sunny Mendoza to have 2 panels or whatever it takes per Split a/c unit, then you could heat and cool as needed since it's completely sunny like 300 days out of the year here. for sure when subsidies are fully gone, in the interim between local small-scale nuclear, Solar could be a thing! what Argies need really is just dual-pane glass, insulation, and caulking hahahahahah


when i get a second place, i would love to host your fam on a trip here. or if you end up here for business, the lower level is yours, no worries...my father-in-law cancelled on coming here this year, so it's not luxurious but we have a nice place and of course the best dog to have coffee with in the morning : )


always are deals, if you don't buy impulsively and have a mind for savings. and yes going to expensive restaurants is expensive, but cooking is overwhelmingly cheap in 95% of cases. flour, beans, stew beef, eggs, sugar, etc. are fantastically cheap in Dollars (which every Argie has saved)



eh, supply and demand follows the law of scarcity; there obviously are enough people, otherwise the restaurant wouldn't be open. we can't have it both ways; no tourists anywhere and BsAs is a poor wasteland, but also luxury restaurants and cafes are charging high prices. the contradiction is due to one of those premises being wrong 😛


sure thing, checking meow...maybe you can do the rough numbers (see attached), hopefully i'm not doxxing myself, since radical leftists have a penchant for trying to destroy people's lives over political opinions 🤐

we don't have a Rates problem here, we have a TAX problem...part of that 259k Pesos is 79k Pesos in taxes!!! what is that, like 30%????


today's update 28Mar2025 is:

Blue 1280-1300
Official 1043-1103
MEP 1299.77 (almost exactly the psychological/arbitrary 1300!)
Crypto 1313
and Santander's "Dólar MEP" instant convert 1291-1299 (Venta/Compra)

Thanks for the offer @StatusNomadicus that is really kind of you. I have a lot of offers to stay at nice places out there. I have a client that owns some luxurious properties out there. But definitely my next trip to Mendoza we will meet up and break bread. It would be great meeting you in person.

Meals sound much cheaper in Mendoza vs. BA. Some decent affordable meals are to be found in BA but many places were really expensive. I like eating at nice places and really was surprised they are so high in BA. I spent less in Paris and London than in many places in BA.

Electricity outside of BA is even higher. And they are going to go up a bit more. I think they are only covering 80% of the actual cost of providing the electricity in BA right now.

Wow that electricity rate is not cheap! That makes it about 24 cents per kwh yes? That is USA prices. Heck even more than some states here.
That seems very high for locals that don't make much. What is the local reaction? $200 USD bill in your place that you said isn't too big? I could easily see like $500 US bills in bigger places?


But my Argentine friends do not like doing anything through their banks because the government sees all of that. They just use cash. Not because it is a better rate but more for privacy reasons they tell me.

Correct. It's all about the privacy. You have to remember that the statistics are not right about incomes, etc. People have more money than is portrayed. People don't like using their bank accounts or credit cards in Argentina because many are working under the table in black and not paying taxes on this income. So they don't want a lot of activity officially. That's why the cuevas are always popular but many deliver to your houses so it's not like it's not convenient.

Much of society will always be under the radar in Argentina and cuevas will always be popular.

 

[StatusNomadicus]

That seems very high for locals that don't make much.

i can't keep stressing that a huge amount of Argies have "generational wealth" in Dollars that most USA folks can't comprehend. they don't 'make much' on paper because only the silly people make salaries "in the White" because the gov't has been so tyrannical for decades.

Argentines aren't as poor as the internet says. they have just mastered evading the State, out of survival and necessity to pass wealth to their family.

i watch everyyyyyyyyy day as Locals buy things that are more expensive than in the USA. mushrooms in Mendoza, for example. 5,000 Pesos ($4 USD) for a 250-gram pack. that would be what, a dollar at Kroger stores? $2 if it wasn't on sale? Mushrooms have been 4,200 to 5,000 Pesos for a tiny pack for at least 8 months. are they all rotting, you'd ask? nope! they get purchased. by the people here who essentially have no bills:

1. get free SUBE card from some category.
2. get subsidized groceries from something else.
3. get monthly welfare checks.
4. get a pension/retirement, on top of investments abroad.
5. have huge amounts of USD $100 bills that can be converted into Pesos at the best rate, when needed.
6. get discounts on everything with CencoPay, CarrefourCredit, MODO, MercadoPago, pay less than tourists and Residents with locals-only pricing.
7. have no mortgage because you inherited a house that is paid-off.
8. electricity and food are the only expenses.

see how Locals have it so cheap? you'll know when they actually can't afford electricity rates, because their A/C won't be running while windows are left open, cracks in insulation, missing caulking, window pieces unrepaired for years, etc.

just know the contradiction seems to be there because the communists are lying to you @Uncle Wong - i promise the widow that lives 2 doors down from me hasn't worked in years and gets a monthly check, AND has a ton of Dollars in her house and in foreign accounts. Argies just won't tell strangers because it's hard to trust people when the government has been so tyrannical

that's why they buy $3 cans of 473mL Amstel and 15,000-Peso/kg luxury cuts of beef for their constant Asados...there are billions of dollars in Argentina, and not that many Argies (yes the Bolivians and Venezuelans might actually be poor, sure, there are poor everywhere and always will be)

banks

sure, and if taxes are higher than the 40% MODO discount, it might make more sense. but they're using cash overwhelmingly because on paper they are poor, but under their mattress is more money than you've seen in your life 🙂 like 80% of the economy is hidden, and 20% of the US Dollars in circulation are in Argentina

some prices for the haters (see attached photos), info from my receipt today:

Flour kg = 549 Pesos
Sugar kg = 899 Pesos
Crackers 500g = 1,120 Pesos
Eggs x30 big brown = 8,000 Pesos minus 40% MODO fri-sun = 4,800 Pesos !!!!!!

and last month i snagged a shitload of beers:
Budweiser liter = 1,450 Pesos

and this wasn't even a discount day....it was just a regular Thursday at Vea/cencosud. imagine how cheap they would be without the 21% tax, which was 3,004 Pesos added to my 25,000 Peso bill 😛

also attached from last weekend was one of the top 5 Lomito sandwiches i've had in the past year - Cordoba still wins by 5% but mannnnnn i could eat that sweet steak sandwich 2x/day and not get bored of it

 

[StatusNomadicus]

so it will go even higher. Maybe for an American it is ok but that is a lot for an Argentine to spend

and people will adjust to the real-world rate. Argies overall are incredibly wasteful of utilities, because they have been nearly 'free' for so long. gotta change. close the door. use insulation. run inverters instead of On/Off Mini-Splits. get dual-pane glass. the rest of the world has figured this out, and here they will, also

and see previous post about the generational wealth....the poor in Argentina likely don't even have A/C, so it's sort of moot. my gym trainer lives in an apartment without A/C and he's fine other than Jan/Feb/Mar when he just goes to bed later and uses a fan. he's a local and isn't interested in getting A/C, just like folks in France and Washington State and San Francisco. some people just don't need it

many Americans are poor, as well. of course

cuevas will always be popular.

only as long as there's a need for a Black Market. if drugs were de-criminalized in the USA, the cartels would lose all their power. likewise, if there were no National-level currency communist restrictions, there would be no need for secret financial offices, because the government wouldn't be able to see your bank account; it would be private between the bank and you. these things aren't crazy ideas; they're the result of the Enlightenment and with Blockchain we're even closer to this type of individual-level decentralization. black markets only exist and thrive with an oppressive State

 

[Betsy Ross]

i can't keep stressing that a huge amount of Argies have "generational wealth" in Dollars that most USA folks can't comprehend. they don't 'make much' on paper because only the silly people make salaries "in the White" because the gov't has been so tyrannical for decades.

Argentines aren't as poor as the internet says. they have just mastered evading the State, out of survival and necessity to pass wealth to their family.

i watch everyyyyyyyyy day as Locals buy things that are more expensive than in the USA. mushrooms in Mendoza, for example. 5,000 Pesos ($4 USD) for a 250-gram pack. that would be what, a dollar at Kroger stores? $2 if it wasn't on sale? Mushrooms have been 4,200 to 5,000 Pesos for a tiny pack for at least 8 months. are they all rotting, you'd ask? nope! they get purchased. by the people here who essentially have no bills:

1. get free SUBE card from some category.
2. get subsidized groceries from something else.
3. get monthly welfare checks.
4. get a pension/retirement, on top of investments abroad.
5. have huge amounts of USD $100 bills that can be converted into Pesos at the best rate, when needed.
6. get discounts on everything with CencoPay, CarrefourCredit, MODO, MercadoPago, pay less than tourists and Residents with locals-only pricing.
7. have no mortgage because you inherited a house that is paid-off.
8. electricity and food are the only expenses.

see how Locals have it so cheap? you'll know when they actually can't afford electricity rates, because their A/C won't be running while windows are left open, cracks in insulation, missing caulking, window pieces unrepaired for years, etc.

just know the contradiction seems to be there because the communists are lying to you @Uncle Wong - i promise the widow that lives 2 doors down from me hasn't worked in years and gets a monthly check, AND has a ton of Dollars in her house and in foreign accounts. Argies just won't tell strangers because it's hard to trust people when the government has been so tyrannical

that's why they buy $3 cans of 473mL Amstel and 15,000-Peso/kg luxury cuts of beef for their constant Asados...there are billions of dollars in Argentina, and not that many Argies (yes the Bolivians and Venezuelans might actually be poor, sure, there are poor everywhere and always will be)


sure, and if taxes are higher than the 40% MODO discount, it might make more sense. but they're using cash overwhelmingly because on paper they are poor, but under their mattress is more money than you've seen in your life 🙂 like 80% of the economy is hidden, and 20% of the US Dollars in circulation are in Argentina

some prices for the haters (see attached photos), info from my receipt today:

Flour kg = 549 Pesos
Sugar kg = 899 Pesos
Crackers 500g = 1,120 Pesos
Eggs x30 big brown = 8,000 Pesos minus 40% MODO fri-sun = 4,800 Pesos !!!!!!

and last month i snagged a shitload of beers:
Budweiser liter = 1,450 Pesos

and this wasn't even a discount day....it was just a regular Thursday at Vea/cencosud. imagine how cheap they would be without the 21% tax, which was 3,004 Pesos added to my 25,000 Peso bill 😛

also attached from last weekend was one of the top 5 Lomito sandwiches i've had in the past year - Cordoba still wins by 5% but mannnnnn i could eat that sweet steak sandwich 2x/day and not get bored of it

Very true about locals having more money than they claim they have. Many people are working under the table and almost every business has a component where they are not charging IVA even though they are supposed to. It's too high so people cheat. Lots of poor too here. I have many friends that have money but they are also feeling the pinch and dining out far less.

If you look at the numbers about 10% of the population traveled outside of Argentina for vacation. Most to Brazil in January. That doesn't sound like people that are struggling.