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The Executive Board of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a US$50 million loan for El Salvador aimed at strengthening the production and use of official economic statistics. The program will be executed by the Banco Central de Reserva (BCR) over a four-year period.
The funds will be directed toward improving the quality of data used for decision-making in the country. The program seeks to make economic information more relevant, timely, reliable, and accessible, while also strengthening the capabilities of the institutions responsible for producing and managing these statistics.
A key component funded by the loan will be the implementation of a new Economic Census, intended to generate more detailed information on the country’s productive activities. The operation also includes the modernization of statistical systems and the incorporation of digital tools.
The use of technology will be a central element of the program. The US$50 million will facilitate the digitization of various stages—including data collection, management, analysis, and dissemination—with the goal of providing information that is more accessible and useful to various sectors.
The new census will also incorporate data on the informal economy, a sector that plays a significant role in employment and economic activity in El Salvador. In this way, the program aims to gain a broader view of the formal and informal productive activities taking place within the country.
For the IDB, reliable and timely economic statistics are crucial for enabling governments, businesses, and citizens to make well-informed decisions. Ezequiel Cambiasso, the IDB Group representative in El Salvador, noted that the program will strengthen the statistical system and modernize the production of economic data.
The financing also builds upon the IDB’s ongoing support for strengthening El Salvador’s statistical system. Previous efforts include support for the Censo de Población y Vivienda de 2024 and other initiatives related to census modernization.
The loan will be financed with resources from the IDB’s Ordinary Capital, under the Specific Investment Loan modality. Through this US$50 million operation, the BCR will serve as the executing agency for a program aimed at modernizing economic information systems and generating data that fosters investment, productivity, and sustainable economic development.
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