The prospects of official dollarisation in Argentina seem to have increased after Libertarian hopeful Javier Milei ranked first in the country’s primary elections.
As undertaken in Ecuador and El Salvador, dollarisation entails the adoption of the dollar as the sole legal tender. It remains popular in Ecuador thanks to its part in contributing to two decades of low inflation. This is surely inspiring hopes in Argentina that the move could end years of chaos. But it is no panacea for the country and there are very large obstacles to adoption.
Dollarisation usually requires a stock of liquid dollars to replace the monetary base and to build a liquidity buffer in the US currency — say, 20 per cent of bank deposits — to counter any runs on the banking system. This substitutes for the role of a central bank as lender of last result, which, under dollarisation, is virtually eliminated.