Below I’ve collected a handful of stats that highlight some of the macro-economic changes El Salvador has seen since adopting Bitcoin as legal tender.
It’s possible that some or all of the changes below were impacted by COVID, inflation around the world, and Nayib Bukele’s efforts as President, so it’s hard to attribute these developments to Bitcoin specifically.
We may need a few more years of data to be sure, but overall it seems like El Salvador is trending in the right direction over the last year or two.
Thoughts?
- El Salvador GDP was +2.4% in Q1 2022, while US GDP was -1.6% in Q1 2022.
- El Salvador’s annual inflation was 7.5% in May, the second-lowest inflation rate in Central America which averages 8.3%, and lower than the 8.6% in the US.
- El Salvador expects to see 2.6% GDP growth in 2022, a rate that exceeds their 20-year average of 2%.
- From January to May 2022, family remittance volume was up 3.89% over the same period in 2021, totalling $3.15 billion.
- Remittances made through Chivo amounted to $52 million from January to May 2022 according to the President of El Salvador Central Reserve Bank Douglas Rodríguez, totalling 1.65% of remittance volume in the country.
- El Salvador’s energy generation in March was up 13%, with 70.9% of it coming from renewables.
- El Salvador’s maritime transport services were up 12.1% in March 2022 vs. March 2021.
- Formal employment in El Salvador was up 7% in Feb 2022 vs. Feb 2021, with 60,000+ new jobs added (almost exclusively in the private sector).
- El Salvador welcomed 521,000 tourists in Q1 2022 who spent $353M, up from 197,000 tourists who spent $236M in Q1 2021. This year, tourism in El Salvador is expected to double last year’s numbers.