The Central Bank of Argentina has terminated a contract with the local mint to print banknotes in denominations¹ of 1000 ($0.98) and 2000 ($1.9) pesos due to the high cost.

Employees of the mint were sent on forced leave. "Banknotes, the printing of which will cease, are not needed. Today, the system is already sufficiently² equipped with them and we need banknotes of a larger denomination," a source in the Central Bank told the publication.



In addition to 1000 and 2000, Argentina uses banknotes in 100 ($0,01), 500 ($0,05) and 10,000 ($9.8) pesos. The country receives the largest banknotes from China. A company from this country has also won a contract to print 20,000 pesos ($19.6) banknotes, which are expected to appear at the end of the year.

According to the Institute of Statistics and Census³, in the first half of this year, the poverty rate in the country increased from 41.7% to 52.9%, while GDP fell by 3.4% over the same period.