e-fourth of public
sector revenues in recent years. Consequently, fluctuations in world
market prices can have a substantial domestic impact. In the late
1990s, Ecuador suffered its worst economic crisis, with natural
disasters and sharp declines in world petroleum prices driving
Ecuador's economy into free fall in 1999. Real GDP contracted by
more than 6%, with poverty worsening significantly. The banking
system also collapsed, and Ecuador defaulted on its external debt
later that year. The currency depreciated by some 70% in 1999, and,
on the brink of hyperinflation, the MAHAUD government announced it
would dollarize the economy. A coup, however, ousted MAHAUD from
office in January 2000, and after a short-lived junta failed to
garner military support, Vice President Gustavo NOBOA took over the
presidency. In March 2000, Congress approved a series of structural
reforms that also provided the framework for the adoption of the US
dollar as legal tender. Dollarization stabilized the economy, and
growth returned to its pre-crisis levels in the years that followed.
Under the administration of Lucio GUTIERREZ, who took office in
January 2003, Ecuador benefited from higher world petroleum prices,
but the government has made little progress on fiscal reforms and
reforms of state-owned enterprises necessary to reduce Ecuador's
vulnerability to petroleum price swings and financial crises.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $45.65 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
2.5% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $3,300 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 8.7%
industry: 29.7%
services: 61.6% (2003 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
21.7% of GDP (2003)

Population below poverty line:
65% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.2%
highest 10%: 33.8% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
43.7 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
7.9% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
4.36 million (urban) (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 30%, industry 25%, services 45% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
9.8%; note - underemployment of 47% (2003 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $6.908 billion
expenditures: planned $6.594 billion, including capital expenditures
of $1.6 billion (2003)

Public debt:
53.7% of GDP (2003)

Agriculture - products:
bana