This file photo shows an erial view of the Guillermo Elder Bell refinery of Bolivian state-owned oil company YPFB in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on December 5, 2025. (AFP Photo)
Bolivia has agreed to end all fuel subsidies by 2027 under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a $1.9 billion bailout, the government said on Sept. 10.
In July, the IMF announced that it had reached agreement with the new center-right government of President Rodrigo Paz on a 36-month loan.
On Sept. 10, the government revealed the conditions attached to the agreement, which aims to help the Andean country, mired in its worst crisis in four decades, stabilize its finances.
The conditions include ending the generous fuel subsidies that had been left a huge hole in the country's currency reserves, leaving the state short of money to import fuel and other essentials.
Soon after he took office in November last year, Paz announced he was eliminating the subsidies.
He did this by raising domestic fuel prices to bring them into alignment with international prices.
But when the U.S.-Israel war with Iran caused global oil prices to rocket, the government dug deep again to absorb the difference with the new domestic price.
Under the deal with the IMF, the government would no longer be allowed to keep fuel prices artificially low.
To cushion the impact, the government would increase spending on some social programs.
The deal has yet to be ratified by Bolivia's Congress.
Economy Minister Christian Morales told reporters that Bolivia was not doing the IMF's bidding but, rather, doing what was "necessary to get out of the debacle we inherited" from the previous left-wing government.
Paz recently doubled the price of diesel for large consumers such as farmers, arguing that cross-border fuel smuggling was fueling fuel shortages.
The price hike sparked protests but there has not been a resumption yet of the mass anti-government protests and blockades that paralyzed parts of the country in May and June.
