The president Luis Arce defended this Saturday the economic model of Bolivia and he promised to maintain it, despite criticism from analysts and the crisis that the country has been going through for years.
During her speech before the Bartolina Sisa Women’s Federation, in the Santa Cruz region, Arce maintained that the social organizations are a factor fundamental of the Bolivian economy and assured that, from his place, he will work to defend and improve the stability of the people hand in hand.
“It is the basis of our economic modelwhich we are not going to change it (…) We are going to improve it based on the Bolivian people“We are going to do it with you,” he began by saying.
Likewise, Arce recalled that the Foundation was one of the social organizations that participated in the creation of his party, the Movement to Socialismwhose pillar is “rebuild the country and recover national resources” for the benefit of the populationso, without a doubt, “our Government is going to defend the economy of Bolivians to the letter“.
“There should be no doubt that we will do everything necessary” to guarantee the economic stability that “everyone needs,” he insisted. “We achieved that stability, we gave stability to the country and we will continue to give it economic stability”hill.
The words of the president of Bolivia came amid criticism from the opposition and analysts, who question the effectiveness of the current model, which has not yet managed to respond to the crisis that the country goes through from early 2023marked by the lack of dollar liquidity and the abrupt fall in Central Bank reserves.
The former president Jorge Tuto Quiroga and the detained governor of Santa Cruz Luis Fernando Camacho are some of the voices that demanded from the Government “urgent measures” to alleviate this situation. Also, the expert Enrique Ayo maintained that “maintaining the economic model is negative for the country” and added that currently “there is no political stability”.
Ignoring these questions, this week, the Banco Central of Bolivia reported that it will support the continuity of current policies and will maintain the exchange rate at 6.96 bolivianos per dollar.
“During this administration We are going to maintain the exchange rate policy as we have been doing in the last few administrations.“said the president of the Bank, Edwin Rojas, who thus rejected a change, even with the effects that the shortage of the currency has had, such as the strong devaluation of its currency.
Instead, he highlighted the positive close of 2024 in regards to international net reserveswhich showed a slight increase although, in reality, it was an insignificant increase.
“As of December 2024 we have closed in USD 1,976 million. This difference shows the increase in USD 267 million“Rojas assured when comparing the balance with that of the end of 2023, when a balance of USD 1,709 million.
In that sense, he added that the three quarters of the year showed “a permanent increase” and “a positive trend in the level of the RIN”with a rise to 1,796 million dollars during the first four months, followed by USD 1,905 million in the second period, and USD 1,976 in December.
(With information from EFE)
