On Monday morning, our first meeting day in El Salvador, we met with the San Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES). I am pictured in the lobby of FUSADES; it is a very modern facility.
Executive Director Alvaro Ernesto Guatemala gave us an overview of government, economics, social and culture in El Salvador. This presentation and meeting was the perfect way to start our work week.
Since the end of the armed conflict in 1991 and the signing of the peace accords in 1991, the economy has moved away from the government orientation with no growth experienced to a market orientation with lots of growth. Major reforms in El Salvador since 1999 have focused on stimulating growth through macroeconomic stability to tie down inflation which has been accomplished through conservative fiscal and monetary policy, tariff reductions, free trades agreements, banking reform through privatization and tax reform which added an income and value-added tax. In addition, economic institutions are being protected through privatization, competitiveness laws and consumer protection. El Salvador boasts the lowest inflation rates in Central America over the last two decades, in part because the official currency is the U.S. dollar.
FUSADES is a nonprofit foundation started in 1983 by business owners with initial funding and support came from seven years of USAID. Currently, FUSADES is self supporting and does not receive funds from government or the private sector.
