Salvadorans living abroad hsent over $50 million in remittances from January to May this year, according to the El Salvador Central Reserve Bank.
Douglas Rodríguez, president of the El Salvador central bank, unpacked the general economic outlook for the country on the local television news program Frente a Frente on Wednesday.
A major takeaway was the $52 million of remittances processed by national digital wallet service Chivo through the first five months of the year. This marks a 3.9%, $118 million increase in value when compared to the same period in 2021.
Chivo was launched in September 2021 as the Central American country became the first in the world to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. The launch of the app reportedly attracted more than 2 million users in less than a month, leading to major teething problems for the state-endorsed payment platform.
The government-sanctioned payment service provider was relaunched in February this year, necessitated by the onboarding of an estimated 4 million users looking to make use of low fees for payments and transfers made in BTC. American cryptocurrency exchange software firm AlphaPoint came onboard to address scaling and stability issues.
