In early May, the US dollar fell to its lowest level in more than seven years, trading at G. 6,000 on the street and G. 5,977 in the interbank market—levels not seen since December 2018, according to official sector data.
The greenback has dropped 7% so far in 2026, and over the past year the decline totals 23%, or nearly G. 2,000 per dollar, compared to the same month last year when the exchange rate hovered around G. 8,000.
By the end of the work week, the dollar showed a slight uptick from the previous close, moving in an interbank/wholesale range near G. 6,100–6,160, with retail reference rates around G. 6,070 (buy) and G. 6,150 (sell).
Economist Martha Coronel said the Central Bank can hardly reverse the trend but may take steps to moderate the decline. “The BCP will always be cutting peaks—that’s its mission, since it has a single official mandate: to control inflation. However, economic growth is also part of its functions, so it faces the difficult dilemma that controlling prices often ends up affecting growth,” she said.
Coronel noted that a lower exchange rate helps keep imported goods relatively cheap, but that benefit is offset because Paraguay imports from countries also experiencing inflation. “We also import that inflation. It comes already embedded in the price,” she explained. She added that fuel imports, made expensive by the Middle East conflict, compound the problem.
While the BCP is “very likely, by mandate, not to act” to contain the exchange rate, Coronel argued it should evaluate options to support exporters, who are squeezed by the weak dollar and rising diesel costs. “The agricultural production chain is very important,” she said, and is currently affected in “transport, logistics, quality control.” If fuel prices keep rising and the dollar continues to fall, profits for the productive sector and other economic areas will shrink, she warned.
Economist Arnold Benítez said the Central Bank cannot become a “profitability insurance” for any sector. “Its role is not to set a comfortable dollar for exporters, importers, or the treasury itself. It is to safeguard monetary stability,” he said.
However, Benítez added that this does not mean ignoring the foreign exchange market. “If the decline responds to fundamentals—more foreign currency inflows, a good agricultural season, lower inflationary pressure, or international dollar weakness—the logical thing is to let the market adjust. But if there are very abrupt movements, excessive volatility, or lack of liquidity, the BCP can intervene to order the market, not to manipulate the price,” he said.
He stressed that companies cannot always rely on the Central Bank. “Firms with dollar exposure should work with tools such as forwards, currency futures, swaps, natural hedging options, and cash flow matching. Exchange rate management can no longer be improvised,” he concluded.