"Foreigners in Argentina"

     Cambio cambio cambio!  Walking along Florida Street in Buenos Aires, many people will yell cambio cambio cambio which means change.  Latin America treasures the US dollar more than their own peso. As we have seen so far, we can pay with US dollars in a majority of the stores here in Buenos Aires and we can also use credit and debit cards.

     This morning we visited the ICBC Fundación. ICBC stands for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and this is the only Chinese bank in all of Latin America. It has been in the Argentina location for about 2-3 years so far.  Latin Americans buy US dollars from the government for peace of mind and to add to their savings in order to buy property in the future.  Right now, the currency exchange is 8,5 pesos for one US dollar. However, there are many places around Buenos Aires that offer more than 8,5 pesos for one dollar. For example, our hotel, Meliã Buenos Aires, offers us 11 pesos for one US dollar.  When people on Florida street yell 'cambio cambio cambio,' they are trying to exchange us pesos for our US dollars, however the pesos they exchange us may not be real because it could just be a scam.  This is called the Blue Market which is an informal currency market. Our tour guides informed us to stay away from that while we are visiting.

     Something extremely interesting that Fernando, an employee at ICBC, informed us about is that people in Argentina do not buy from online websites like eBay and Amazon because they are not allowed to by law. Years ago, people were able to purchase products from these websites, but they had to be under a certain cost due to all of the charges included in importing them into the country.  The buyer had to pay 35% in advance of income tax and also a bunch of other charges so buying the product was not worth the exterior charges involved.

     From 1991-2001, international trade was regulation free, but due to a $100 billion debt, regulations had to be set in 2001. A few regulations that were set included increased taxes and export retentions which are taxes for exporters.  People were not too happy with these changes, but they needed to be done to improve the economy.
     Latin Americans and Latin American companies cherish US dollars because they trust them.  This is the main reason why US dollars are the main currency in Latin America. So as you can see, even though we are referred to as "foreigners in Argentina" because we are from the US, our dollar is present in Argentinians everyday lives.