In a recent thread, Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, announced that they have paid their debt in full. According to his Twitter thread, El Salvador paid $800 million + interest to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The President of El Salvador had some words for international news agencies, including the IMFNews portal. As stated in his tweets of Bukele, none of the major news agencies is covering the story of El Salvador paying its debts.
The main motive behind these tweets was to “expose” international media and the IMF, according to Bukele. Last year, when the price performance of Bitcoin began to go downhill, hundreds of international news agencies were making predictions about El Salvador’s future. Many agencies, including The New York Times and Washington Post, called El Salvador’s move a “bet.” Hundreds of articles began circling the internet, and all of them focused on El Salvador’s debt. The main idea that these articles meant to portray was the fact that El Salvador is not going to be able to pay its debt in January 2023 because of its “Bitcoin legal tender” experiment. In summary, Well, President Bukele proved them wrong, paying the debt in full just some hours ago.
Tensions Between IMF and El Salvador
In the past, the IMF has provided financial assistance to El Salvador in exchange for the implementation of economic reforms and austerity measures. These measures have included reducing government spending, privatizing state-owned enterprises, and implementing structural reforms to improve the business climate.
One of the latest agreements was done in 2020. Back then, El Salvador requested the IMF financial assistance to face the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just one year after the agreement, President Bukele introduced Bitcoin as a legal tender in the country. However, this was not welcomed from the IMF. Since that day, the IMF constantly urges Bukele to reverse his decision. If that wasn’t enough, they “threatened” El Salvador throughout 2021, stating that they will no longer support the country. So, President Bukele and the IMF have been going back and forth online for two years now.
CZ Binance Comments On Bukele’s Tweet
Some hours after President Bukele’s tweet, CZ Binance, one of the most important players in the industry, commented on it. The comment was short, however, the crypto community was excited about the interaction. CZ commented a “thumbs up” (👍) emoji on Bukele’s tweet. Several comments followed, though, with people praising President Bukele and CZ as leaders of global Bitcoin adoption.