Pre-election jitters send Argentine peso to new lows

BUENOS AIRES: The US dollar broke through the symbolic 1,000 peso mark on Argentina’s parallel market on Tuesday, as citizens scramble to dump the currency two weeks before a presidential election, according to websites tracking the rate.

The “blue dollar” is a thriving black market exchange tool in a country where access to dollars is strictly controlled.

With the parallel dollar now trading at over 1,000 pesos, it is worth almost three times the official rate of 365 pesos, propped up at great cost by the government.

Uncertainty is high ahead of the vote, and frontrunner Javier Milei, a radical outsider who has vowed to dollarize the economy, on Monday urged people to steer away from the peso.