coldplay
Coldplay.
  • Argentina's economic burdens have spawned a number of dollar-peso exchange rates.
  • It's the result of the government's capital restrictions on dollar outflows.
  • They include a black market dollar rate, as well as the "Coldplay" and "Qatar" rates.

Argentina's presidential race, which features a candidate who wants to ditch the peso for the US dollar, has highlighted the country's byzantine currency system.

There are more than a dozen different peso-dollar exchange rates that are meant to stem outflows of the greenback, which is in short supply as Argentina's hyperinflation has made the peso among the world's worst performing currencies. 

With massive dollar-denominated debts, the peso is not a free-floating currency. There's an official rate, but also a "blue dollar" rate determined by an underground exchange of greenbacks that's free of governmental controls.