“2020 was the worst year for Ecuador’s economy” said Mauricio Pozo

Mauricio Pozo, Minister of Economy and Finance, said that “it is impossible to find a worse year in the Ecuadorian economy than 2020.”

This Thursday, April 26, the minister gave an account of last year, in relation to the Ministry of Finance and stressed that not even in the crisis of the Banking Holiday in 1998 and 1999, was it so serious.

“They are not going to find a worse year,” he emphasized.
Pozo recalled that at that time, “the economy fell from 5 to 6 percent,” on a process that led to dollarization and that had serious social connotations.

According to accountability, in 2017 the country’s economic growth fell from 2.4% to 1.3% in 2018, to 0 in 2019 and -7.8% in 2020.

He argued that the crisis arising from the coronavirus was an important factor in increasing the economic crisis.

“We already had a crisis before the pandemic, we had not grown for five years (without raising the percentage of growth), and therefore employment levels had not improved either, and there was a fiscal problem,” he said.
He added that “the restriction measures, implemented at the beginning of the pandemic, interrupted productive and commercial activity.

Regarding tax collection, the Finance Minister explained that this was reduced by 12.6% from USD 14,268 million to USD 12,382 million.

All this led to an unprecedented reduction in the Ecuadorian GDP, although the minister stressed that it was lower than the -11% that was initially expected, and this, he assured, thanks to international aid and the adoption of reforms to regenerate productive activity.

According to the official in the context of the pandemic, the containment measures adopted by the Government have managed to stop the fall and restart a slight improvement.