Law No. 1765, promulgated on 18 September 2026, approves a loan of SDR 1,369 million, about USD 1.9 billion, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility, over 36 months. It authorises the National Treasury (TGN) to service the debt, instructs the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance to formalise the operation and report to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly every six months, and provides that the programme's terms are set out in an annex forming an integral part of the law. That annex is the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, which details the measures and deadlines the government undertakes to meet until 2029.
The IMF Executive Board approved the arrangement on 2 October and released a first disbursement of SDR 156 million, about USD 214 million. The rest will be paid in tranches subject to quarterly reviews, the first of them due in December 2026 and based on end-September criteria. According to the Fund, the programme should also help unlock some USD 4 billion from other international financial institutions. It is Bolivia's first IMF programme since the stand-by arrangement approved in 2003.
Annexing the memorandum to the law gives it publicity and legal rank, so the reform calendar appears in the Official Gazette and not only in Fund documents. The commitments keep the nature of an IMF programme. Performance criteria and structural benchmarks are assessed at each review, and the memorandum provides for policies to be recalibrated, in coordination with the Fund, if adverse shocks occur. The law also orders the loan to be executed in full compliance with Article 320, paragraph IV, of the Constitution, which enshrines the State's independence in economic policy decisions, and the memorandum presents the reforms as sovereign decisions of the Bolivian government. For companies, the annex works as an official, dated roadmap for planning the years ahead.
The starting point
The memorandum starts from a demanding diagnosis. In 2025 the fiscal deficit reached 11% of GDP, central bank financing of the public sector amounted to 7% of GDP and public debt exceeded 80% of GDP. The economy contracted by 1.6% and inflation hit a record high. The programme expects activity to bottom out in 2027 and recover from 2028, with inflation of 14% at the end of 2026 and single digits in 2028.
To correct those imbalances, the government commits to a fiscal adjustment of around 8.5% of GDP between 2026 and 2029, concentrated in the early years. The aim is to eliminate the primary deficit of the non-financial public sector by the end of the programme and to bring the overall deficit down to 3.5% of GDP in 2029. The reformulated 2026 budget caps the deficit at Bs 47,000 million, 9.3% of GDP, and the 2027 deficit must not exceed Bs 36,800 million. Most of the effort comes from spending, through the removal of fuel subsidies, restraint on the public wage bill and more selective public investment, while the larger tax measures are left for the second and third years. Social assistance spending, by contrast, has a floor and will be expanded.
Fuel
This is where most progress has been made. Supreme Decree No. 5716 of 18 September removed the diesel subsidy for all consumers and moved diesel to a regime based on import parity, with an initial price of Bs 17.95 per litre that will track international markets. It replaced the two-tier scheme that Supreme Decree No. 5676 had introduced in August for industry and large consumers. Supreme Decree No. 5729 of 25 September allows private importers to bring in grade 100 aviation gasoline and sell it at market prices, without subsidy and at a zero tariff until 31 December 2027. Premium gasoline is already sold at market prices, Supreme Decree No. 5644 opened private import and sale of fuel, and Supreme Decree No. 5548 authorised YPFB and the refineries to import crude.
The next step has a date. Regular gasoline keeps a fixed price until December under Supreme Decree No. 5652, and the subsidy on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) ends on 31 December 2026 under Supreme Decree No. 5667. The memorandum states that the 2027 budget will include no fuel subsidies and that domestic prices will reach cost recovery from January, under a formula that already reflects the flexible exchange rate. To support the transition, the government undertakes to expand targeted social assistance and to submit to the Assembly, by the end of March 2027, the legal framework for a unified social registry. Following the diesel measure, it has also opened talks with the sectors affected.
For companies with fleets, their own power generation or energy-intensive processes, the practical consequence is direct. Budgets for 2027 should be built on fuel at import cost and a flexible exchange rate, and supply, haulage and construction contracts with fuel-linked price clauses deserve a review before the end of the year.
Exchange rate, credit and banking
The official and reference exchange rates were unified at the end of June and the country is moving towards a flexible exchange rate regime. On 24 September, through Board Resolution No. 142/2026, the BCB replaced its Foreign Exchange Operations Regulation and removed the cap that barred banks from selling dollars at more than 10 centavos above the official rate, one of the programme's prior actions. The BCB will intervene only in disorderly market conditions, under a "constrained discretion" framework it must publish in detail by the end of December 2026, and will calculate the official rate with a methodology based on the wholesale market. For the life of the programme, the government undertakes not to introduce new exchange restrictions or multiple currency practices, not to enter into bilateral payment agreements inconsistent with Article VIII of the IMF's Articles of Agreement and not to impose import restrictions for balance-of-payments reasons.
On monetary policy, the BCB is adopting monetary base targets as its nominal anchor, will publish compliance monthly and plans to move towards inflation targeting before the programme ends. The memorandum notes that interest rates may become more volatile during the transition. By the end of June 2027, as part of the revision of the Financial Services Law, caps on lending rates and credit quotas will be removed, so that lines now subject to regulated rates will move to market terms. Foreign-currency deposits are being returned gradually, in step with a two-year wind-down of the Productive and Social Housing Credit (CPVIS) funds.
The financial system has its own calendar too. The financial supervisor, ASFI, will carry out solvency and liquidity stress tests and independent asset quality reviews of systemic banks by the end of March 2027, when resolution and recovery plans must also be in place. By the end of June 2027, amendments will be submitted to the Assembly to align capital, liquidity, provisioning, related-party and accounting rules with international standards, together with a modernised bank resolution regime. Also planned are a deposit guarantee unit, foreign exchange hedging instruments, a regulatory framework for virtual assets, stronger anti-money-laundering measures and amendments to strengthen the BCB's autonomy.
Fiscal policy, taxes and the State
On the fiscal side, the government must publish a medium-term fiscal strategy, one of the first structural benchmarks, due at the end of September, and adopt a 2027 budget aligned with the programme before the end of the year. A Domestic Resource Mobilisation Strategy, covering tax policy, revenue administration and customs reform, is due by the end of March 2027, and a medium-term fiscal framework with multi-year spending ceilings by the end of June. Every new measure must come with a prior assessment of its fiscal impact. In that spirit, the 2027 budget will offset the effect of recently approved relief measures, including the repeal of Article 9 of Law No. 1755.
For suppliers to the State, the programme provides for an audit of arrears accumulated by central government and state companies, using a standard definition of arrears, followed by a time-bound payment strategy. The public wage bill will grow more slowly than nominal GDP, public investment will be prioritised through cost-benefit analysis, and unviable state companies will be restructured.
Investment climate
The memorandum also includes reforms aimed at the private sector. It plans to phase out price controls and export caps gradually, with mitigation policies designed with the World Bank and the IDB, and to review the regulatory and tax frameworks for hydrocarbons and mining to encourage private exploration while securing an adequate share of resource rents for the State. These are joined by an access-to-information law, stronger property rights and contract enforcement, and a governance diagnostic with IMF technical assistance.
The milestones ahead
The calendar for the coming months centres on four moments. At the end of December 2026 come the first programme review, the 2027 budget, the stress test of the BCB's balance sheet and the foreign exchange intervention framework. On 1 January 2027, gasoline and LPG move to cost-based prices. The end of March 2027 brings the tax strategy, the legal framework for the social registry, the bank stress tests and the resolution plans. At the end of June 2027, rate caps and credit quotas are removed, and the banking and central bank reforms go to the Assembly.
For companies and investors, the value of the annex lies in that predictability. It makes it possible to anticipate energy costs, access to foreign currency and the price of credit over the next two years, and to adjust budgets, contracts and financing structures in good time.
