| Inner City Press
asks IMF of Crypto El Salvador
and Eastern Congo Fall Out now
Transcript Here
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
NYC,
Feb 6 –
When the IMF held its press
briefing on February 6, Inner
City Press was able to ask the
spokesperson two
questions: on
cryptocurrency and El
Salvador, including its recent
purchase of 50 Bitcoin, and on
the IMF's response to the
fighting in Eastern Congo,
Goma and beyond.
On El
Salvador the IMF spokesperson
said that in the new program
the risks of Bitcoin will be
reduced. Reportedly, the Chivo
wallet is being closed or
sold. But what about the
purchases? And will the new US
Administration impact IMF
policies, on this and other
matters? Video:
Transcript:
Inner City Press
/ Matthew Russell Lee:
Question about Rwanda and
Eastern Congo. I wanted to
know, I know that the IMF has
programs with both Rwanda and
the DRC. And I wanted to know,
you know, given the M23
incursion, the fall of Goma,
how the programs can react to
it, if there is anything you
can say about that. And also,
obviously, in El Salvador,
they changed their
cryptocurrency law, but it is
also reported that they
recently bought 50 bitcoins.
So, some people are for the
kind of national treasury.
Some people are confused in
terms of what the contours of
the limitations put on. And I
wonder if you could comment on
that. Thanks a lot.
KOZACK: Okay,
thank you. Any other questions
on these countries? DRC,
Rwanda, El Salvador?
Okay, let me start with DRC
and I want to start by saying
that, you know, we are deeply
saddened by the loss of lives
and the humanitarian crisis in
the Eastern part of DRC. We
are closely monitoring the
situation, including its
potential impact on
neighboring countries and the
region. And of course, we are
also closely monitoring with
respect to potential impact on
our program. With
respect to Rwanda, what I can
say on Rwanda is simply that
the country continues to
demonstrate a robust
commitment to advancing policy
reforms. And In December of
2024, our Executive Board
concluded the Fourth Review of
Rwanda's programs. With
respect to El Salvador, just
to step back and remind, IMF
staff and the Salvadorian
authorities reached a
staff-level agreement on
December 18th for a new
arrangement, a new EFF
arrangement. The arrangement
would be for about $1.4
billion to support the
government's reform agenda,
and this agreement is subject
to approval by the IMF's
Executive Board. I can
also add that as explained in
the press release that we
issued following the
staff-level agreement, the new
Fund supported program aims to
reduce the potential risks of
the bitcoin project. Once in
place, purchases of bitcoin
will be confined under the
program as agreed.
***
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