Cordoba.- In the last two decades, not a single “investment” has been defeated. Those who bought $ 100 worth of bone meat in 2002 would have more money today than they would have invested in a traditional UVA fixed term or dollar, and he was “handcuffed” to the most daring of those who bet on stocks or titles. On the stock exchange. The conclusion is derived from the paper Cordoba Stock Exchange Institute for Economic Research.

This year, Central Bank The reference interest rate has increased fivefold – two years without it – as this is one of the terms of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund. With the recent increase, they went up to 49% per year for a period of 28 days (equivalent to 61.8% of the equivalent effective monthly rate). However, it does not protect investors from accelerating inflation, which hurts savings and investment.

Considering the different investment options gives the following results:

fried. In the case of a hypothetical fried purchase and freezing equivalent of $ 100 20 years ago, today it cost $ 24,000. It surpassed the savings alternatives most commonly used in the country.

Traditional fixed term. It is one of the most advanced savings tools in the country. The initial deposit of $ 100 in April 2002 will be $ 3,800 in interest payment today.

The main thing is that in order to have the same purchasing power that you had $ 100 20 years ago, you need almost $ 12,000 today. Inflation has worsened the savings of an investor who opted for a fixed term, having actually lost 68%.

Fixed term in UVA. This tool was introduced in 2016. The starting $ 100 is currently $ 4750. Despite exceeding its traditional maturity, it has lost 60% due to inflation.

If the investment in UVA had existed 20 years ago – the Institute considered the Reference Stabilization Ratio (CER) – the yield would have been $ 4,362, even less than the combination of the fixed term and UVA described above.

This situation arises because CER repeated the inflation reported by Indec during its intervention from 2007 to 2015, which was not estimated. That is, the indicator, originally designed to track price movements, eventually lost 63% against real inflation (re-estimated based on data from the city of Buenos Aires over the past 20 years).

dollar. A saver who bought $ 100 in April 2002 will now be valued at nearly $ 3,900 at the official exchange rate. Measured at free market value, the amount jumps to $ 6,700.

Calculations show that dollarization has defeated traditional savings instruments in the peso, but it has also lost to inflation: in fact, the free dollar has lost 44% of its purchasing power since April 2002.

In addition to distorting Argentina’s economic policies, it has been clarified that the dollar has also had inflation over the last 20 years, accumulating 60.8%. So his purchasing power also deteriorated, though to a lesser extent than the peso.

Shares on the stock exchange. These are tools used by savers who want to take a high level of risk. The $ 100 invested in April 2002 will be the equivalent of $ 22,500 today, based on the evolution of the Marvel Index, which summarizes the behavior of the Argentine stock market. This figure will be 90% higher than inflation.

Due to the low level of financial education in Argentina, investing in the capital market is not a very common alternative. According to the BCRA and CAF (2017), while 73% of Argentines recognize term deposit savings as an alternative, only 33% do so in shares.

In the work of the institute he adds that in practice 12% of Argentines save in foreign currency, 5% do so on a fixed term basis and less than 1% in the capital market. Half of Argentines do not save by decision or because their income is not enough. “The loss of purchasing power, the low level of financial education and the policy of financial repression, along with lower interest rates, are causing the savings of the population to deteriorate,” he added.