Jan 3 (Reuters) – Ecuador’s economic growth was 3.2% in the third quarter of last year, thanks to increased domestic consumption and government spending, the central bank said on Tuesday, raising its forecast for full-year 2022 growth to 3.1%.
President Guillermo Lasso has promised to improve the economy, which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic and weeks of anti-government protests over the past year.
The government has conceded that a moratorium on oil production in 15 blocks will delay plans to double production to 1 million barrels a day by 2025, but it has signed both a trade deal and a debt restructuring deal with China.
“These results show that the Ecuadorian economy has resumed its growth trajectory, raising positive expectations for the fourth quarter of 2022, which will allow us to exceed the recent annual growth forecast of 2.7% for 2022,” the bank said in a statement Explanation.
The economy will have grown 3.1% over the past year, central bank governor Guillermo Avellan said, which is close to pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter of 2019.
Domestic consumption — which accounts for more than 65% of Ecuador’s GDP, equivalent to about $11.8 billion — rose 3.8% in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2021, while government spending rose 2%.
The annual growth between July and September was also due to expansions of 14.5% in the aquaculture and shrimp fisheries sector, 11.8% in the housing and catering sector, 9.5% in power and water utilities and 8% in communications and post ‘ said the bench.
The economy grew 1.7% in the third quarter compared to the second, Avellan said, adding that full-year 2023 growth is expected to be nearly 3.1%. (Reporting by Yury Garcia in Guayaquil Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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