Bitcoin fantasy and El Salvador's heavy fiscal debt

While the Salvadoran government spends millions of dollars of public funds on buying and trading Bitcoin in the speculative digital market, and negotiates against the clock a financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for $1.3 billion, more than 42% of the country's rural population continues to live in conditions of food insecurity and extreme poverty.

The intense advertising campaign promoting El Salvador as the "world capital of cryptocurrencies" stands in sharp contrast to the everyday economy of working people, where the domestic use of Bitcoin to buy food amounts to barely 5.80% of everyday transactions.

The high interest rate of 12% that the country must pay to place sovereign debt reflects the distrust of international markets toward the opaque management of crypto finances.

Speculation in digital assets is no substitute for a solid industrial policy centered on generating formal employment with decent wages.

El Salvador needs to make transparent the use of public funds spent on buying digital assets and to direct the scarce resources of the treasury toward strengthening school infrastructure and peasant agricultural production.