Uruguay has intensified its public debt de-dollarization strategy in 2026, with an increased focus on local currency issuances and a growing share of domestic investors. In the first seven months of the year, the government raised the equivalent of $2.144 billion through regular auctions of Treasury Notes in the domestic market. This amount more than doubled the financing obtained in the same period of 2025, representing a 102% increase, and surpassed the financing from the second half of the previous year by 61%.
Of the total financing, $1.226 billion (57%) was issued in fixed-rate nominal pesos, $506 million (24%) in inflation-indexed units (UI), and $412 million (19%) in wage-indexed instruments. The rising share of peso-denominated issuances aligns with a period of persistently low inflation. Instruments in nominal currency constituted 57% of domestic issuances in the first seven months of 2026, a significant increase from 19% in the comparable period of 2025.
This de-dollarization trend is also evident in the composition of the debt stock. By the end of June, 56.6% of the Central Government's debt was denominated in local currency, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from the end of 2025. This brings Uruguay close to its government-set objective of having at least 57% of its total debt in local currency by the end of the current administration. This strategy aims to reduce exposure to exchange rate volatility and provide a stable financing base amid global market turbulence.
