According to ElSalvador.com, finance minister Alejandro Zelaya recently said that he is not worried about predictions that El Salvador will be defaulting on its $800 million sovereign bond due in January 2023. 

Alejandro Zelaya continued by saying that his country is open to discussing financial options with multilateral international organizations. Zelaya claimed that the World Bank has agreed to loan the government the amount of $100M, and they have also secured a $220M loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. A third loan deal with the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) is still being finalized. He added that the government is not concerned about defaulting, as they don't see the $800M debt as unpayable. 

The newspaper quoted the economist Ricardo Castaneda from ICEFI (Central American Institute of Fiscal Studies), saying that the markets are worried about the lack of transparency and clarity regarding the measures taken by the government to pay off the debt, adding that indicators perform poorly (High inflation, low GDP growth). 

In a recent Twitter post, Nayib Bukele (President of El Salvador) also showed optimism about the country's BTC adoption helping the economy. He envisions El Salvador as becoming a global BTC hub. Bitfinex, a popular cryptocurrency exchange platform,  announced a 36 BTC and 600,000 USDT donation to support struggling communities and small businesses in the country.

Author: Garrett Meifert