Quito, July 4 (EFE)- Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso will replace Economy Minister Simón Cueva after 18 days of protests against the government’s economic policies led by the indigenous and peasant movement.
The change of minister for the Economics and Finance portfolio was confirmed to Agência Efe this Monday by a government source and will become official in the coming hours.
Cueva has been in Lasso’s cabinet since the beginning of the government and has been characterized by maintaining solid macroeconomic fundamentals, including strict fiscal discipline and a tax reform to boost revenue.
With this, Ecuador sought to achieve the goals of its US$6.5 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), of which US$5.8 billion has already been paid.
The most recent US$1 billion allocation was approved by the IMF last week after the government implemented a series of corrective measures it had requested to resolve several observations that prevented the agency from receiving this money sooner.
These observations included the performance of inspections at state-owned oil companies and more accurate reporting of government spending on pensions and health care compared to the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS, Spanish acronym).
During Cueva’s head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ecuador’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.2% in 2021 compared to 2020, which allowed it to move forward in its economic recovery, but still reaching pre-covid-19 levels.
Similarly, in the first quarter of 2022, Ecuador’s economy grew by 3.8% compared to the same period of 2021 and by 0.4% compared to the last quarter of last year, driven by national consumption and private investment both at home and abroad.
But Ecuadorian consumers were also affected by the sharp rise in prices in line with the global trend, so the rise in the cost of living was one of the reasons that led the indigenous and peasant movement to call for 18 days of mobilization. .
source: Noticias
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