De Facto Government Leaves Bolivia Deeply in Debt

Bolivian President Luis Arce said Sunday in his inauguration speech that the administration of the president of the de facto government of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, plunged the country into an economic crisis that began in November 2019, right after the coup d'état against then-President Evo Morales, but that "deepened" during the pandemic of the new coronavirus, which caused the COVID-19.

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According to Arce, between November 2019 and October 2020, the internal and external debt of Bolivia amounted to more than 4200 million dollars. Arce also reviewed the international reserves, warning of a decrease of 881 million dollars between November 2019 and October 2020.

"Today our economy is in the midst of a deep recession, we have a drop of 11.1% in the GDP [Gross Domestic Product], according to the National Institute of Statistics in the second quarter of the year," he added. 

Despite all these dire announcements, he expressed confidence that by working together with the people, the Bolivian government would be able to "once again overcome adversity" and announced the reconstruction of the economy, the generation of certainty and growth with the redistribution of income and the reduction of economic and social inequalities.

Arce, who served as Minister of Economy during the last year of the mandate of former President Evo Morales and who is credited with the Bolivian economic boom, won the Bolivian presidential elections held on October 18 with almost 3.4 million votes, 55.10 percent of the total vote. He has promised to establish a balanced system of power and work to reconstruct the country, rectify what was wrong, and continue with what was done well.