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The president of El Salvador — the world’s first country to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as its legal tender — Nayib Bukele announced that the country’s 2025 budget will be debt-free.
The news was announced during a talk held during El Salvador’s Independence Day celebrations and published by Bukele in a Sept. 16 X post. The president called the video “financial independence announcement on Independence Day” and in the video, he says:
“This September 30th, for the first time in decades, we will submit to the Legislative Assembly a proposed national budget that is completely balanced, with no need to issue a single cent of debt for our current expenditure.
Financial independence announcement on Independence Day 🇸🇻
Anuncio de independencia financiera en el Día de la Independencia 🇸🇻 pic.twitter.com/JVDi2DuFCr
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 16, 2024
More than yearly expenses are covered
Not just the 2025 budget expenses are covered without new debt. Bukele further claimed that expenses related to debt accumulated in the past will also be covered:
“El Salvador will no longer spend more than what it produces each year. We won’t even borrow money to pay down interest on the debt that we inherited. We will cover even those payments from our revenue.”
El Salvador’s President explained that the measure aims to spur long-term economic development in the country. While he anticipated some immediate benefits, he believes that those will accrue and become more noticeable over time:
“The resulting benefits will not be immediate, although there will be immediate benefits; year by year the benefits will continue to grow, just like brick-by-brick we will see a growing and robust economy in a country that is truly independent, not just because it has peace freedom and security, but also because it will be financially independent. It will be fiscally independent. And the next generations will inherit a country with economic prosperity.”
As ReadWrite reported back in mid-May, at the time, the country’s “Bitcoin Office” reported that El Salvador could be holding up to 5,750 BTC. Since 2021, the nation has mined nearly 474 BTC by harnessing the geothermal power generated from the Tecapa volcano. More recent data shared by the Bitcoin Office shows that El Salvador holds 5,875 BTC — worth $358.84 million as of press time.
