The IMF reached a staff-level consensus on El Salvador’s performance in meeting the conditions required to receive a new disbursement. Regarding bitcoin, efforts will be made to ensure that the total amount of the cryptocurrency owned remains unchanged.
El Salvador Passes IMF Review With Flying Colors Despite Its Bitcoin Purchases
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El Salvador Overcomes IMF Review With a ‘Strong Performance’
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the compliance of El Salvador with the requirements to keep receiving upcoming disbursements derived from a credit facility deal inked in February.
The institution found that El Salvador’s performance in applying the program was strong, with authorities being successful in implementing the agreed economic reform plan. Luis Cubeddu, Deputy Director of the Western Hemisphere Department, and Ivan Torres, Mission Chief for El Salvador, stated:
Most program targets set for the first review were comfortably met, and implementation of the structural benchmarks is progressing well.
Subject to the approval of the executive board of the fund, this outcome allows El Salvador to receive $120 million more, the following tranche of the agreement to help El Salvador stabilize its economy.
The IMF continued to praise El Salvador, stressing that “despite a more challenging external backdrop, El Salvador’s economy continues to expand supported by improved confidence and still robust remittances.”
While El Salvador’s continued bitcoin purchases seemed to break the “confinement” of the bitcoin operations at a state level, no infringement was found in this review. Stopping these purchases was one of the requirements of the IMF to finalize this deal.
The fund stated that efforts would continue to ensure that the total amount of bitcoin held across all government-owned wallets remains unchanged. The fund also stressed that it will ensure that the unwinding of the state’s participation in the Chivo wallet, El Salvador’s official bitcoin wallet, finally occurs.
El Salvador has remained steadfast in its commitment to keep purchasing bitcoin, having added dozens of BTC to its coffers after the IMF deal. While there are theories, no one knows the strategy President Nayib Bukele is following to keep adding bitcoin to the country’s reserve while complying with the IMF agreement at the same time.
Read more: Bitcoin Purchases Confined: IMF Approves $1.4 Billion Credit Facility for El Salvador
