Overview: Ecuador continues to recover from a 1986 drop in international oil prices and a major earthquake in 1987 that interrupted oil exports for six months and forced Ecuador to suspend foreign debt payments. In 1988-89 oil exports recovered--accounting for nearly half of Ecuador's total export revenues--and Quito resumed full interest payments on its official debt, and partial payments on its commercial debt. The Borja administration has pursued austere economic policies that have helped reduce inflation and restore international reserves. Ecuador was granted an IMF standby agreement worth $135 million in 1989, and Quito will seek to reschedule its foreign commercial debt in 1990.

GDP: $9.8 billion, per capita $935; real growth rate 0.5% (1989)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 54% (1989)

Unemployment rate: 14.3% (1988)

Budget: revenues $2.2 billion; expenditures $2.7 billion, including capital expenditures of $601 million (1988 est.)

Exports: $2.2 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--petroleum 47%, coffee, bananas, cocoa products, shrimp, fish products; partners--US 58%, Latin America, Caribbean, EC countries

Imports: $1.6 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--transport equipment, vehicles, machinery, chemical, petroleum; partners--US 28%, Latin America, Caribbean, EC, Japan

External debt: $10.9 billion (1989)

Industrial production: growth rate 0.7% (1988)

Electricity: 1,953,000 kW capacity; 5,725 million kWh produced, 560 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: food processing, textiles, chemicals, fishing, timber, petroleum

Agriculture: accounts for 18% of GDP and 35% of labor force (including fishing and forestry); leading producer and exporter of bananas and balsawood; other exports--coffee, cocoa, fish, shrimp; crop production--rice, potatoes, manioc, plantains, sugarcane; livestock sector--cattle, sheep, hogs, beef, pork, dairy products; net importer of foodgrain, dairy products, and sugar

Illicit drugs: relatively small producer of coca following the successful eradication campaign of 1985-87; significant transit country, however, for derivatives of coca originating in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru

Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-88), $457 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-87), $1.4 billion; Communist countries (1970-88), $64 million

Currency: sucre (plural--sucres); 1 sucre (S/) = 100 centavos

Exchange rates: sucres (S/) per US$1--526.35 (1989), 301.61 (1988), 170.46 (1987), 122.78 (1986), 69.56 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Ecuador on this page is re-published from the 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Ecuador Economy 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Ecuador Economy 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.