El Salvador Expected to Reach $1.30 billion Loan Deal with IMF, Will Remove Mandatory Acceptance of Bitcoin Payments for Businesses

On December 9th, the government of El Salvador is expected to reach an agreement with the international monetary fund (IMF) to lend 1.30 billion dollars in the next 2-3 weeks. As a condition, the country will remove the mandatory requirement that companies must accept bitcoin payments. In addition, the government promised to cut the budget deficit by 3.5 percentage points and raise foreign exchange reserves to 15 billion dollars.