Latin America · GDP rank #23

Argentina

AR · ARS @ 0.0007140/USD

Two years into Milei-era reform, inflation has fallen from 211% (Dec 2023) to roughly 32% YoY (Apr 2026), the parallel-FX premium has collapsed, and the payments landscape is a three-way contest between Mercado Pago's incumbency, MODO's bank consortium, and a USD-stablecoin retail economy that has reached the second-largest per-capita base globally.

Tab 05

Cross-border

Inbound and outbound remittance corridors, tourism flows, FX markup on retail cross-border, and the country's posture on stablecoin adoption. Corridor figures come from the World Bank RPW feed or the publishing central bank; both are cited when they disagree.

Remittance inflows

US$1.1B

USD · 2024

Remittance outflows

US$0.5B

USD · 2024

Inbound tourism spend

US$4.5B

USD · 2024

Outbound tourism spend

US$6.8B

USD · 2024

Avg. corridor cost

4.6%

% · Q4 2024

Net position

Net receiver

Top inbound corridors

  • SpainUS$280M

    via MTO

  • United StatesUS$240M

    via MTO

Top outbound corridors

  • ParaguayUS$120M

    via MTO

  • BoliviaUS$90M

    via MTO

Cross-border card

Card flow leaving and arriving

Cards issued domestically and used abroad reflect outbound consumer travel and cross-border e-commerce; volume acquired from abroad reflects inbound tourism and foreign online shoppers.

Issued volume spent abroad

US$6.8B

USD/year · 2024

Acquired volume from abroad

US$4.5B

USD/year · 2024

FX cost

What consumers pay above the interbank

Retail FX markup is the spread between the mid-market rate and the rate the consumer receives — the single largest friction point in small-ticket cross-border.

FX regime
managed-float
Reference
Managed float with crawling-peg element and ongoing capital-control unwind

Source · BCRA

FX markup not reported.

Full reference

Remittances

Net Position: receiver

Source: