Can Argentina Break Its Dollar Habit as Inflation Slows?

Years of lost savings taught Argentines to buy dollars. Economist Martín Tetaz says rebuilding trust in the peso could take years after inflation is tamed.

An Argentine saver could spend a decade earning interest at a bank and still lose more than half their purchasing power. That is a difficult experience to forget when the government announces another improvement in inflation.

BeInCrypto Intelligence’s The Exodus Economy found that a peso term deposit retained just 44% of its starting purchasing power between June 2016 and June 2026. Someone keeping the equivalent of $10,000 in peso cash ended with about $114 in dollar value.

Speaking to BeInCrypto, Martín Tetaz, an Argentine economist and former national deputy, described the resulting attachment to dollars.

“Demand for dollars is, in practice, the purchase of insurance. It’s like buying car insurance. And it’s a habit that is learned, and that takes time to unlearn.”

Argentina Inflation Rate Over the Last 3 Years. Source: Trading Economics

The report’s ten-year comparison shows why savers looked elsewhere. Dollar cash preserved 74% of purchasing power in Argentina. 

Dollars earning short-term US Treasury yields preserved 94%. A Brazilian CDI-linked deposit, meanwhile, increased local purchasing power by 50%.

Dollar cash also lost purchasing power over the decade. In Argentina, the report’s peso options performed considerably worse.

Purchasing power retained, June 2016–June 2026. Start = 100. Source: BeInCrypto

The Peso Has a Better Case

Under President Javier Milei, annual inflation has fallen far below its roughly 289% peak in April 2024. INDEC’s latest figures put it at 33.8% in July 2026. Monthly inflation edged up to 2.1%, from 1.9% in June, a reminder that prices are still rising appreciably.

Tetaz expects the preference to survive well beyond the immediate recovery.

“First it has to eliminate inflation, and then, once inflation is gone, for at least seven or eight years it will keep seeing significant dollar demand until that stability consolidates,” Tetaz said.

That is his estimate of how long confidence takes to recover. Savers have to believe today’s improvement will survive a change of government before committing money for years.

Dollars are Easier to Buy

The report charts another substantial change. The extra cost of buying dollars on the parallel market, compared with the official rate, fell from above 150% in 2023 to around 2% by July 2026.

A narrower gap makes dollar access less expensive. By itself, it reveals little about whether people want to hold fewer dollars.

Official and parallel dollar rates through July 2026. Original report, Figure 16.

There are signs that some crisis-driven demand is easing. Deel payroll data published by a16z crypto on August 30 show the share of Argentine contractors paid in USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, fell as inflation eased, then levelled off. The sample covers contractors using Deel; it cannot establish a nationwide return to peso savings.

The report also shows how accessible digital dollars have become. On Argentine wallet Lemon, tracked withdrawals averaged $544 in the first half of 2026, with monthly medians around $150–$270. These are amounts within reach of ordinary earners.

Tetaz believes a more stable peso could recover some everyday uses.

“If stability returns, short- and medium-term contracts will all be in pesos, and many of the economy’s dollar contracts will unwind.”

He expects longer commitments, such as mortgages, could retain inflation-linked arrangements. Dollar earners may still prefer dollar rents.

Argentina could therefore regain confidence in the peso without persuading everyone to abandon dollars. For a household, trusting pesos for next month’s bills is a much smaller commitment than trusting them with ten years of savings.

Read The Exodus Economy for the full analysis.