The economy of El Salvador is considered a developing, upper-middle-income economy that relies heavily on services, exports, foreign family remittances and its unique status as a dollarized country. It has experienced relatively low rates of GDP growth, in comparison to other developing countries. Rates have not risen above the low single digits in nearly two decades. The Salvadoran economy is characterized by income inequality, with 37.8% of the population below the poverty line.
Economic history Historically, El Salvador had inequitable distribution of land, with most of it concentrated among the so-called Fourteen Families after El Salvador experienced an agrarian revolution in the late 1800s. President Rafael Zaldívar authorized the sale and privatization of Indigenous communal lands to facilitate farming. Whereas other states in Latin America had implemented land reforms, El Salvador still had a highly inequitable land system by the middle of the 20th century. El Salvador has been characterized as an oligarchic agro-export economy centered around large-scale coffee cultivation.
El Salvador had an economic boom in the 1920s, which was brought to an end with the onset of the Great Depression, which brought coffee prices down. Over the period 1926 to 1932, income from exports were halved.
The long-standing inequality culminated in the Salvadoran Civil War, a conflict fought between military-backed governments and left-wing guerrillas. The war destroyed vital infrastructure, crippled agricultural output and prompted a massive wave of emigration, primarily to the United States.
The signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords in 1992 marked the start of El Salvador's economic recovery. The government embraced neoliberal, free-market policies that privatized state utilities and banks and joined the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) to spur manufacturing and exports.
The Salvadoran government undertook a monetary integration plan beginning 1 January 2001, by which the U.S. dollar became legal tender alongside the colón, and all formal accounting was undertaken in U.S. dollars. This way, the government has formally limited its possibility of implementing open market monetary policies to influence short term variables in the economy. Since 2004, the colón stopped circulating and is now never used in the country for any type of transaction; however some stores still have prices in both colons and U.S. dollars. The change to the dollar precipitated a trend toward lower interest rates in El Salvador, helping many to secure credit in order to buy a house or a car. Over time, displeasure with the change has largely disappeared, though the issue resurfaces as a political tool when elections are on the horizon.
In June 2021, president Nayib Bukele said he would introduce legislation to make Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador. The Bitcoin Law was passed by the Legislative Assembly on 9 June 2021, with a majority vote of 62 out of 84. Bitcoin officially became legal tender ninety days after the publication of the law in the official gazette. As part of the law, foreigners can gain permanent residence in El Salvador if they invest 3 Bitcoin into the country. In January 2022, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged El Salvador to reverse its decision to make cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender. Bitcoin had rapidly lost about half of its value, meaning economic difficulties for El Salvador. President Bukele had announced his plans to build a Bitcoin city at the base of a volcano in El Salvador. In the first 18 months of Bitcoin adoption, the cryptocurrency was rarely used by the local population or tourists, leaving USD the de facto standard for transactions. The Bitcoin experiment was largely a failure.
In 2021, El Salvador received a $40 million loan for small enterprises and projects for climate action, from the European Investment Bank to the country's development bank, Banco de Desarollo de el Salvador. $20 million will be used to assist investments in renewable energy projects, specifically photovoltaics, biogas, and micro hydro projects. Up to 50% of the loan line will be used to assist small and medium-sized enterprises who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public sector
Fiscal policy has been one of the biggest challenges for the Salvadoran government. In December 1999, net international reserves equaled US$1.8 billion. Having this hard currency buffer to work with, the Salvadoran government undertook a monetary integration plan beginning in January 2001 by which the U.S. dollar became legal tender alongside the Salvadoran colón, and all formal accounting was done in U.S. dollars. With the adoption of the U.S. dollar, El Salvador lost control over monetary policy. Any counter-cyclical policy response to the downturn must be through fiscal policy, which is constrained by legislative requirements for a two-thirds majority to approve any international financing.
The 1992 peace accords committed the government to heavy expenditures for transition programs and social services. The stability adjustment programs (PAE, for the initials in Spanish) initiated by president Cristiani's administration committed the government to the privatization of banks, the pension system, electric and telephone companies. The total privatization of the pension system has implied a serious burden for the public finances, because the newly created private Pension Association Funds did not absorb coverage of retired pensioners covered in the old system. As a result, in July 2017, the Government of El Salvador wanted to take $500 million from the privatized pension system to cover retired pensioners from the old not privatized system, but the Supreme Court of El Salvador declared this move unconstitutional. The government lost the revenues from contributors and absorbed completely the costs of coverage of retired pensioners. This has been the main source of fiscal imbalance. ARENA governments have financed this deficit with the emission of bonds, something the leftist party FMLN has opposed. Debates surrounding the emission of bonds have stalled the approval of the national budget for many months on several occasions, reason for which in 2006 the government will finance the deficit by reducing expenditure in other posts. The emission of bonds and the approval of a loans need a qualified majority (3/4 of the votes) in the parliament. If the deficit is not financed through a loan it is enough with a simple majority to approve the budget (50% of the votes plus 1). This would facilitate an otherwise long process in Salvadoran politics.
Despite such challenges to keep public finances in balance, El Salvador still has one of the lowest tax burdens in the American continent (around 11% of GDP). The government has focused on improving the collection of its current revenues with a focus on indirect taxes. Leftist politicians criticize such a structure since indirect taxes (like the value added tax) affect everyone alike, whereas direct taxes can be weighed according to levels of income and are therefore more punitive toward productive people. However, some basic goods are exempt from the indirect taxes. A value-added tax (VAT) of 10%, implemented in September 1992, was raised to 13% in July 1995. The VAT is the biggest source of revenue for the government, accounting for about 52.3% of total tax revenues in 2004.
As of 3 November 2014, the IMF reports official reserve assets to be $3.192B. Foreign currency reserves (in convertible foreign currencies) are $2.675B. Securities are $2.577B with total currency and deposits at $94.9M. Securities with other national central banks (BIS and IMF) are $81.10M. Securities with banks headquartered outside the reporting country $13.80M. SDRs are at $245.5M. Gold reserves (including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped) reported at $271.4M with volume in millions of fine Troy ounces at $200k. Other reserve assets are financial derivatives valued at $2.7M.
Bitcoin
Economic sectors
Remittances
Remittances from Salvadorans working in the United States sent to family members are a major source of foreign income and offset the substantial trade deficit of around $2.9 billion. Remittances have increased steadily in the last decade and reached an all-time high of $2.9 billion in 2005—approximately 17.1% of gross national product (GNP).
Remittances have had positive and negative effects on El Salvador. In 2005, the number of people living in extreme poverty in El Salvador was 20%, according to a United Nations Development Program report. While Salvadoran education levels have gone up, wage expectations have risen faster than productivity. This has led to an influx of Hondurans and Nicaraguans who are willing to work for the prevailing wage. Also, the local propensity for consumption has increased. Money from remittances has increased prices for certain commodities such as real estate. With much higher wages, many Salvadorans abroad can afford higher prices for houses in El Salvador and thus push up the prices that all Salvadorans must pay.
Agriculture
In 2018, El Salvador produced 7 million tons of sugarcane, being heavily dependent on this product. In addition to sugarcane, the country produced 685 thousand tons of maize, 119 thousand tons of coconut, 109 thousand tons of sorghum, 93 thousand tons of beans, 80 thousand tons of coffee, 64 thousand tons of orange, in addition to smaller yields of other agricultural products such as watermelon, yautia, apple, manioc, mango, banana, rice etc.
The ultimate goal was to develop a rural middle class with a stake in a peaceful and prosperous future for El Salvador. At least 525,000 people—more than 12% of El Salvador's population at the time and perhaps 25% of the rural poor—benefited from agrarian reform, and more than 22% of El Salvador's total farmland was transferred to those who previously worked the land but did not own it. But when agrarian reform ended in 1990, about 150,000 landless families still had not benefited from the reform actions.
The 1992 peace accords made provisions for land transfers to all qualified ex-combatants of both the FMLN and ESAF, as well as to landless peasants living in former conflict areas. The United States undertook to provide $300 million for a national reconstruction plan. This included $60 million for land purchases and $17 million for agricultural credits. USAID remains actively involved in providing technical training, access to credit, and other financial services for many of the land beneficiaries.
Manufacturing El Salvador historically has been the most industrialized state in Central America, though a decade of war eroded this position. In 1999, manufacturing accounted for 22% of GDP. The industrial sector has shifted since 1993 from a primarily domestic orientation to include free zone (maquiladora) manufacturing for export. Maquila exports have led the growth in the export sector and in the last 3 years have made an important contribution to the Salvadoran economy.
Mining
Mining in El Salvador expanded in scope from artisanal mining to industrial mining at the San Sebastián mine in the 1970s. Chemicals from that mine polluted the San Sebastián River.
Mining ceased during the Salvadoran Civil War. After the war, the country's right-wing government proposed 33 mining zones, issuing exploration licences to American, Australian, and Canadian companies. The plan was met with opposition of many local community and community leaders, who successfully blocked exploration in Chalatenango in 2005.
Pacific Rim Mining Corporation obtained a permit to explore the El Dorado gold mine in 2002, but were denied a license to mine in 2008, following local opposition.