In December 1999, net international reserves equaled US$1.8 billion. Having this hard currency buffer to work with, the Salvadoran government undertook a monetary integration plan beginning in January 2001 by which the U.S. dollar became legal tender alongside the Salvadoran colón, and all formal accounting was done in U.S. dollars. With the adoption of the U.S. dollar, El Salvador lost control over monetary policy. Any counter-cyclical policy response to the downturn must be through fiscal policy, which is constrained by legislative requirements for a two-thirds majority to approve any international financing. As of December 2017, net international reserves stood at $3.57 billion.