The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukelepromised on Sunday that he will present to Congress a budget project for 2025 “fully funded” with its own resources, so that the country does not spend more than it produces.
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“I announce that on September 30th we will present to the Legislative Assembly, for the first time in decades, the first fully funded budget, without the need to issue a single cent of “debt for current expenditure”said Bukele in his speech for the 203rd anniversary of Central American Independence.
He added: “El Salvador will no longer spend more than it produces annually“We are not even going to lend money to pay the interest on the debts we inherited. We will even pay that from our own production.”
Bukele said on June 1, at his inauguration for his second consecutive term – despite the fact that The Constitution prohibits immediate re-election-, who would seek to “heal” the economy during this five-year period, his main “failure” according to polls, after defeating the “cancer” of gangs.
The president gathered more than 18,000 members of the Armed Forces to give his speech, in which he stressed that the gangs would be “operationally dismantled” by his “war” against these gangs, through a regime of exception, which suspends constitutional rights.
“The gangs are operationally dismantled, but that does not mean that they are still there are no enemies to defeat. Perhaps the biggest of all is to change our way of being, of understanding and acting in this new reality,” said the president.
The Legislative Assembly, with a large pro-government majority, of El Salvador approved last December a general state budget of 9,068.7 million dollars, which was said to have reduced its need for financing and would not require further loans.
The budget approved the issuance of more than 338 million dollars in debt to cover its deficit, but in mid-May last year the issuance of 338 million dollars in debt was authorized. 1.5 billion in bonds for current spending and at the end of July the incorporation of 1,000 million into the budget was approved.
According to data from the Central Reserve Bank, the total public debt in 2023 arrived at 20,097.64 million dollars, to which is added the debt with the pension funds for 10,116.43 million dollars.
International financial organizations and the main risk assessment agencies have been pointing out that El Salvador’s financial situation compromises its access to new loans, while the country has negotiated with the International Monetary Fund an agreement for $1.4 billion.
EFE AGENCY
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