First Dicom auction awarded $ 24.1 million

AVN.- A total of $ 24,102,981 was awarded by the new Complementary Floating Exchange Rate System (Dicom) in its first auction, informed the director of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), Pedro Maldonado.

He pointed out that last Thursday's first call was resolved with an ordinary auction and the exchange rate stood at 2,010 bolivars per dollar. The BCV had set a minimum mobile band of 1,800 bolivars and a maximum of 2,200 bolivars per dollar.

"This ordinary auction shows that the available supply managed to solve the demand for foreign exchange at a rate that is within the bands established by the BCV," he said in a press conference at the Central Bank in Caracas.

He said that $ 22,945,094 were awarded to 776 legal persons and $ 1,157,887 to 3,054 natural persons out of the total amount, meeting 55% of demand.

"We want to underline we got to meet 59% of legal entities demand," said Maldonado, who heads the BCV's Auction Committee.

In the case of legal entities, he said that 35.60% of currencies was requested for the import of finished products; 35.60% for raw materials; 17.60% for supplies and spare parts; 7.70% for the hiring of services, for payment of debts, and 3.32% for capital goods.

On the other hand, natural persons declared they will use foreign exchange for savings, remittances and travel (75%), Internet purchases (13%), medical treatments (9%) and further education (3%).

He stated there are more than 100,000 people registered to apply in the new exchange process through the site www.dicom.gob.ve.

"This gives an unmistakable sign that the electronic and computerized procedure that has been established relies on the confidence of the population and the productive economic sectors," he added.

Maldonado further said the BCV will open the second Dicom auction on Thursday morning and will be declared closed on Friday afternoon. "Having to resolve this auction on Monday and publishing results on Tuesday of next week," he explained.

The registration for bids is continuous from Monday through Saturday, from 8 am to 10 pm. Natural persons can request up to $ 500 quarterly, with a maximum of $ 2,000 a year, and legal ones up to $ 400,000 per month.