In 2016 Ecuador invested USD 5.757 million; So far this year, the figure is around USD 985.9 million.
Investment in public works suffered a drastic fall in the last four years. According to figures from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, between January and July of this year, USD 985.9 million were allocated to comply with the 2020 investment plan, something that represents an approximate reduction of five times compared to what was invested 4 years ago.
In 2016, Ecuador faced one of the most difficult years in the economic sphere in its recent history, but despite this, public investment was USD 5.757 million.
This year, the country has also recorded large economic losses due to the health and financial crisis, caused by the coronavirus. Given this, a public investment of USD 985.9 million was reported in the first seven months of the year, but this reduction did not occur only in this year, but since 2017, the year in which President Moreno took office, a significant decline.
One of the sectors most affected by the reductions in investment is Health. Last year, as an example, the initial resource allocation was USD 495.2 million. That value, however, was steadily slashed to just 159.9 million, representing a reduction of more than USD 300 million for health care plans and programs.
In the same way, thousands of public servants have denounced that the Government has not paid their salaries on time, and state providers have staged dozens of protests to demand that the Executive cancel their debts, since, in some cases, the debt would exceed two years.
The IESS and the ISSFA have also claimed the pending resources from the Government and the Parish Boards, Municipalities and Prefectures have not received the pending payments to face the health crisis or to carry out the works they had planned.
The Annual Investment Plan for this year was initially approved at USD 3’624.7 million.
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