In the context of continued inflation, the Central Bank of Argentina will issue banknotes of 10,000 and 20,000 pesos

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In the heat of unstoppable inflation, the Central Bank of Argentina reported that it will put 10,000 and 20,000 peso bills into circulation starting in June.

According to the issuing entity, these new denominations – equivalent to about 12 and 24 dollars, respectively – “will facilitate transactions between users and make the logistics of the financial system more efficient.”

The measure highlights the constant loss of purchasing power of the peso due to inflation, which is devouring the pockets of Argentines.

It is a common postcard to see Argentines paying in cash with wads of bills that are increasingly swollen due to the growing loss in the value of paper money.

Argentina registered monthly inflation of 25.5% in December and closed 2023 with a year-on-year variation of 211.4%, the worst measurement in the last 32 years. These are data that confirm the South American country as one of the countries with the highest inflation in the world.

To find a record similar to last December’s inflation, we must go back to February 1991, when it reached 27%.

The new bill was announced the day before, about seven months after the 2,000 peso bill (currently $2.39) began to circulate—the last one with the highest value.

The 10,000 peso bill will have images of Manuel Belgrano, one of the main heroes of Argentine independence, and María Remedios del Valle, who fought side by side with men in the war that led to emancipation.

The protagonist of the 20,000 peso bill will be Juan Bautista Alberdi, inspirer of the National Constitution of 1853. In addition, the birthplace of that Argentine lawyer, diplomat, economist, writer, philosopher, journalist and politician will be illustrated.

President Javier Milei, an ultra-liberal economist who has promised to destroy inflation with orthodox measures such as the drastic reduction of the fiscal deficit, warned that several months will continue to pass with a pronounced rise in the cost of living and “horrible numbers” because “there is still a process of rearrangement of relative prices”.

The price deregulation policies, added to the devaluation of more than 50% that the government applied after taking office on December 10, induced an inflationary dynamic, economists agreed.