he next elected
government takes office in August 1998. Ecuador has joined the Word
Trade Organization in 1996, but has failed to comply with many of its
accession commitments. Growth slowed to 2.0% in 1996, due to a lack of
investment caused by political uncertainty and high domestic interest
rates.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $47 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $4,100 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture : 13%
industry: 38%
services: 49% (1996 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 26% (1996)

Labor force:
total: 3.4 million
by occupation: agriculture 29%, manufacturing 18%, commerce 15%,
services and other activities 38% (1990)

Unemployment rate: 8.5% with widespread underemployment (1996 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $3.6 billion (1997)
expenditures: $3.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1996 est.)

Industries: petroleum, food processing, textiles, metal work, paper
products, wood products, chemicals, plastics, fishing, lumber

Industrial production growth rate: 3.3% (1996 est.)

Electricity - capacity: 2.754 million kW (1996)

Electricity - production: 9.27 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity - consumption per capita: 600 kWh (1996)

Agriculture - products: bananas, coffee, cocoa, rice, potatoes,
manioc, plantains, sugarcane; cattle, sheep, pigs, beef, pork, dairy
products; balsa wood; fish, shrimp

Exports:
total value: $4.9 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: petroleum 37%, bananas 20%, shrimp 13%, cocoa 2%, coffee
3%
partners : US 39%, Latin America 25%, EU countries 22%, Asia 12%

Imports:
total value: $3.7 billion (c.i.f., 1995)
commodities: transport equipment, consumer goods, vehicles, machinery,
chemicals
partners: US 32%, EU 19%, Latin America 35%, Asia 11%

Debt - external: $12.6 billion (1996)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $153 million (1993)
note: received $12.7 million from the US and $160 million from other
countries in 1995

Currency: 1 sucre (S/) = 100 centavos

Exchange rates: sucres (S/) per US$1 - 3,674.9 (January 1997), 3,189.5
(1996), 2,564.5 (1995), 2,196.7 (1994), 1,919.1 (1993), 1,534.0 (1992)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Ecuador:Communications

Telephones: 586,300 (1994 est.)

Telephone system:
domestic: facilities generally inadequate and unreliable
international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stat