El Salvador

El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated Central American country, a lower-middle-income economy dependent on remittances from the large Salvadoran community in the United States, services, and manufacturing.

After recovering from civil war, it adopted the US dollar in 2001 and made global headlines by adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021; a sweeping crackdown has dramatically cut once world-leading gang violence.

Key Sectors

The economy rests on remittances (a large share of GDP), manufacturing and textiles in free zones, services, and agriculture (coffee and sugar).