ECONOMY. –
Whoever wins the presidency of Ecuador will receive a country with a deficit that would be around USD 5 billion and a public debt of more than USD 58 billion.
Added to this is that the country will no longer receive USD 1.2 billion annually from the oil that was exploited in block 43, known as ITT, and the USD 200 million represented by the tax reform that was decreed by President Lasso.
Economic experts point out that the new Government will have little capacity to carry out works, so it will be necessary to seek financing.
“The new Government is going to have little fiscal space to be able to carry out works, to be able to fulfill its electoral promises,” says Santiago García, president of the Association of Economists of Pichincha. For this reason, he believes that candidates should now start looking for alternatives to increase income.
One of them, according to García, is to suspend the reduction of the ISD, which by December 2023 would represent USD 900 million. Additionally, promote public-private alliances.
José Hidalgo, director of Cordes, maintains that the new Government should make decisions, even if they are not politically correct. “Focus subsidies on fuel or increase some easily collected tax such as VAT,” he maintains./La Hora
