Argentina’s Central Bank snapped a near seven-month streak of dollar purchases, just a day after the IMF encouraged officials to keep raising foreign currency reserves. So far this year, it has bought an average of US$97 million a day, pushing total foreign reserves to US$48.9 billion, near the highest level since 2019. On Monday, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva called on Central Bank Governor Santiago Bausili to “keep it up, keep buying,” during a press conference in Buenos Aires. State-owned Banco Nación appeared in the spot market Tuesday, selling dollars to support the peso near 1,500 per dollar, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Residents have been buying an average of about US$2 billion a month in foreign-currency banknotes this year, according to Central Bank data.