Bolivia's Congress has approved a $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), handing President Rodrigo Paz a significant legislative win despite his Christian Democratic Party lacking a congressional majority. The deal, Bolivia's first multi-year IMF arrangement since 2006, requires the government to phase out longstanding fuel subsidies that had kept petrol and diesel prices among the cheapest in the world, with Paz aiming to eliminate them entirely by January. The country's main union federation, the Bolivian Workers' Central, has warned the resulting rise in living costs could reignite mass protests, following weeks of road blockades in June and July that brought much of the country to a standstill; Congress extended a state of emergency by a further 90 days on Thursday to help manage unrest.