October 13, 2022

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Experiment: $60 Million Lost, $375 Million Spent, Little to Show So Far

Source: CNBC

Journalists: Arjun Kharpal, MacKenzie Sigalos

Data from Bloomberg Economics shows that El Salvador tops its ranking of emerging market countries that are vulnerable to a debt default. Even as it retires some of its outstanding debts, the country’s domestic and multilateral loan obligations pose a real threat, in part because the world’s biggest lenders aren’t too keen to give cash to a country betting its future on one of the most volatile assets on the planet.

Pair these economic woes with a renewed war on gang violence and the country is barreling toward uncertainty.

“The government claims the developments as a success, but most local commentators and international watchers are underwhelmed,” Rachel Ziemba, founder of Ziemba Insights, told CNBC.

Read the full story and more from CNBC.

Author

  • Rachel Ziemba

    Adjunct Senior Fellow, Energy, Economics, & Security Program

    Rachel Ziemba is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Her research focuses on the interlinkages between economics, finance and security i...