(18 Jun 2013)
AP TELEVISION
Bariloche
1. People walking along main street
2. People walking into shop
3. Close of sign with prices displayed in Argentine pesos, US dollars and Brazilian reales
4. Wide of town hall building
5. Tourists in main square having photos taken
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) No name given, US tourist:
"We brought (US) dollars but, yes, we are changing them so that we can buy things in pesos."
7. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) No name given, Brazilian tourist:
"For us it works out really good when we change and think of the value in pesos. For now it's definitely on the positive for us."
8. Wide of town with lake in foreground
9. Wide of lake and mountain peaks surrounding town
10. Various street scenes
11. People in shop
12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) No name given, Colombian tourist:
"We got confused in some cases because sometimes they charged us nine pesos (1.70 US dollars), others eight pesos (1.50 US dollars), others five pesos (0.94 US dollars), so for a foreigner it is very difficult because we don't know really how much it is."
Buenos Aires
13. Tilt up from taxi to busy pedestrian shopping street in centre of city
14. Close of man touting for customers to change money; UPSOUND: (Spanish) "Change - Euros, Dollars, Reales - change"
15. People in currency exchange centre
16. Wide of tourists walking past shop selling leather products
17. Close of leather bag on sale with sign reading: (Spanish) "Leather, 800 pesos (150 US dollars) in cash"
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Mario Clemente, Italian tourist:
"If you consider the black change (unofficial) and the official change, we gain a lot by shopping in Buenos Aires, of course. But I think this is a problem for Argentina."
19. Wide of busy street
20. Tilt down from exterior of shopping mall onto busy street
STORYLINE:
The weakening peso has led to a flood of day-trippers and other visitors from neighbouring countries into Argentina, which keeps tightening its currency controls in hopes of protecting foreign reserves and reducing the flight of dollars.
Brazilian visitors gawk in wonder as they stroll past shop windows in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires.
The jackets, the shoes - they're all so cheap when one's purse is stuffed with black-market money.
Visitors who turn to the streets rather than the banks to swap their dollars in Argentina are getting a bonanza of extra pesos and can shop much more cheaply than back at home.
The phenomenon also has had a major impact in border towns and in resort areas such as the ski town of Bariloche, 1,600 kilometres (994 miles) from the capital, where foreigners are lured by the purchasing power of an exchange rate ambiguity.
"We brought (US) dollars but, yes, we are changing them so that we can buy things in pesos," said one tourist from the United States.
Argentineans who feel their savings are perpetually at risk tend to save in other currencies, and in other countries, whenever they can.
Inflation now runs at about 25 percent a year, according to independent economists, while the government is trying to gradually devalue the peso by about 20 percent a year against the dollar.
So with their buying power rapidly eroding, Argentineans are more eager than ever to hedge their losses by swapping pesos for dollars.
The government has responded with a series of measures since late 2011 that have made it almost impossible to legally obtain dollars at the official rate.
But that has only made many Argentineans more desperate.
As a result, many evade the formal financial system and buy black-market greenbacks that Argentineans euphemistically call "blue dollars".
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