The exchange rate of the dollar ended last week at ¢572, after reaching a maximum value of ¢ 579.6 during the first week of September, so during this period, the value of the colón has grown by 1.3% against the dollar.
The downward movement constitutes a change of direction in what had been a year dominated by the depreciation of the national currency.
This was explained by Adriana Rodríguez, an analyst at Scotiabank, who commented that since mid-September, the foreign currency wholesale market (Monex) has been less pressured and the trading sessions perceive greater selling pressure of dollars, and therefore, the type of exchange has shifted to the downside.
The main reason is that daily averages of dollar purchases by individuals in financial institutions have declined in relation to both previous months and relative to the same months of last year, while the supply of dollars maintains similar levels or slightly higher,”
said Rodríguez.
There are several explanations behind the smaller purchases of dollars by individuals and companies. According to the specialist, the first and most important is that with an increase in interest rates in colones, incentives to “dollarize” savings decreased and that had, until then, been the main cause of the deterioration in the exchange rate.
The second reason is that the higher level of exchange rate alone discourages their purchase, and many people prefer to wait for the well-known year-end seasonality to buy foreign currency, which is a period in which the exchange rate historically declines before strong increases in the supply of dollars, typically from October until the first half of December,”
added Rodríguez.
The Central Bank has managed to recover foreign exchange for its International Reserves, both for the space it has found in the market to buy dollars without raising its price, and for the greater flows that the Public Sector has been selling.
Despite recent behavior, the analyst expects a continuation of the depreciation trend towards the end of the year.