According to the economic section of El Caribe, the new hike in the exchange rate is due to the fact that the Central Bank has increased its advances and rediscount chapter to record levels, and that this has neutralized the efforts of the demonetization of hundreds of millions of pesos. The Central Bank demonetized RD$800 million, and received RD$3 billion more when it raised the legal reserve limit from 17% to 20%. The bank has also received billions of pesos from the sale of certificates of participation. This demonetization, however, has done little to counter the rise in the exchange rate. Esteban Delgado, the journalist from El Caribe, says that the failure to suppress the increasing exchange rate comes from the fact that during the same period the demonetization was being carried out, the Central Bank also dramatically increased its advances to the commercial banks. The advances and rediscount accounts at the Central Bank have, historically, been less than one billion pesos. In December of 2002, however, they jumped to RD$6.583 billion. In January of 2003 the account stood at RD$.924 billion, in February at RD$4.7 billion, and in March at RD$8.610 billion. According to Delgado, the efforts to slow the rise in the exchange rates were cancelled out by the more than RD$10 billion in advances made.