Money Rates

Came through Ivato airport 9/24/14 and changed usa dollars. International rates were a bit different from the four official money changers found in International terminal from 2395 to 2300 ( in ariary). Interesting that the money changer called "best" offered the lowest rate at 2,300.

As always over the years I have walked the 100 steps over to domestic terminal to the one official money changer and got the rate of 2,450 ariary.
I changed the most dollars I felt comfortable with, for when you leave Tana to other parts of the Big Island the rates go down the further you travel from the Capital especially small towns.
The math looks like this $1000 usa gives you 2,450,000 at domestic. vs the lowest rate in Ivato 2,300,000.
difference of 150,000ariary. which is about a savings of $60usa or about 50 euros. And worth the extra walk for me.

And on coinmill today it's 2,655ar = $1. Changing quite fast, though I guess that's an inter-bank rate. But you should be able to get close to 2,600ar.

It is so true that the money is changing very fast and I sent money from my USA bank two weeks ago to my bank here and got close to 2,500ar There is a buy rate and a sell rate within those numbers..
Also about two years ago the ariary was hovering around 2,000ar to the dollar. Last year I read an article in the local paper here that the ariary would settle down at about 3,300- 3,500 ar to the dollar. And of
course the Euro and other currencies would also settle much higher.

For the tourist this is good news as their money will go about 25% further. The Malagasy society being a closed economy does not see basic need prices on the rise. Such as propane is on the rise but most Malagasy use wood to cook with. Also salaries are not on the rise. In short the next couple of years will be interesting.