Ricardo Patiño - Ecuador
Who is Ricardo Patiño?
Ricardo Patiño is the future economy minister of Ecuador.
Why watch him?
Patiño says that his priority as economy minister is to “set in motion an economy policy which benefits Ecuadoreans, which highlights social productivity". After Rafael Correa's election victory, the president-elect and Patiño indicated that they were willing to pursue an “Argentine-style" default on the country's foreign debt.
Born: 1955
Place of Birth: Guayaquil
Education: Patiño studied for his undergraduate degree in economics at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Iztalapa de México. As a postgraduate he studied at the Universidad de Guayaquil and earned a Masters in economic development at the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía in Huelva, Spain.
Public Life: He was deputy economy minister during Correa's brief tenure as economy minister in the first few months of Alfredo Palacio's presidency. Prior to that he was coordinator of the technical advisory committee of the inter-ministerial commission on employment and a consultant to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). He is married and has a 21-year old daughter.
Strengths
President-elect Rafael Correa designated Patiño as his future economics minister a fortnight before the first round of the presidential elections in October 2006. The two men are close collaborators and Patiño accompanied Correa on several of his trips to other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, after his victory in November. In his campaigns for debt relief and work for various social groups, in particular a women's cooperative he ran with his wife, he has had an impressive degree of success. Work colleagues describe him as an excellent manager open to dialogue.
Weaknesses
Given that Palacio has just fired his fifth economy minister in under two years, Patiño's position is likely to be under pressure from the outset. The Guayaquileño economist also has a bold programme which has already spooked the markets. Ecuadorean bonds plunged on the news that Patiño is considering a debt restructuring; he said he would make an announcement on the matter in February.
Prospects
In the middle of December Patiño started to sketch out the future government's economic policies. Patiño said he would seek to reverse the neo-liberal policy of limiting the state's role in promoting the diversification of exports. He said that the state has to do more than regulate: "it also has to promote" and argued that the banks had either failed completely to assist in the development of new activities or had only partially fulfilled this role. Patiño denied that the Correa government would switch to introducing detailed five-year plans but he did not shy away from saying that where the state had to play a role it would do so. He also promised that where the market was working the Correa government would not interfere.
The oil industry will be analyzing Patiño's statements closely. Patiño said that 85% of the oil revenues went to oil companies while the government got only 15%. The clear implication is that oil concessions will be reworked in the government's favour, as has happened in Bolivia and Venezuela. Patiño also said he was interested in returning Ecuador to OPEC, which it quit in the mid-1990s.