The director of the Western Hemisphere of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nigel Chalk, said on Thursday that they are “dialogue with the official authorities of El Salvador”, “in a preliminary way for a mechanism.”
In March 2021, the Salvadoran government made official that it was in negotiations with the IMF for an Expanded Service Agreement (SAF) that involved financing for $1.3 billion and a plan to deal with the country’s fiscal situation.
The agreement was left in limbo after El Salvador legalized bitcoin, and for many economists this law was one of the obstacles to reaching a negotiation, in addition to other issues such as transparency and governance.
But Chalk explained that they are in preliminary talks on the subject, although he did not delve into further details if it would be a SAF mechanism or another mechanism, although he pointed out that there is no request as such.
«We have been doing it (talking) for a while, we already finished the discussions for article IV… there are some possibilities to establish a program, I do not think that a request has been received; We are discussing preliminary so that there is no program yet, but we are listening to the authorities and seeing what best meets their needs,” the IMF executive explained.