Weekly Report - 15 December 2016 (WR-16-49)

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has taken the bold decision to send a bill to the national assembly to increase taxes. Correa said that the tax on real estate profits was designed to target speculators and would have a negligible impact on ordinary Ecuadoreans. But when this tax was first presented to the national assembly in June last year, admittedly alongside a contentious inheritance tax reform, it prompted thousands of protesters to gather on Los Shyris, a busy straight in the commercial centre of Quito, as well as the coastal city of Guayaquil and further afield. The upshot was that Correa withdrew the bill until a “great national debate” could be held. Correa has not risked trying to push through the inheritance tax reform again but there is still hostility to the real estate tax reform which, with just two months to go until general elections, could undermine the prospects of the man bidding to become his successor, Lenín Moreno, for the ruling Alianza País (AP).

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