Latin American Economy & Business - October 2017 (ISSN 1741-7430)

Ecuador posted real GDP growth of 3.3% year on year in the second quarter, the third consecutive quarter of annualised growth, prompting much self-congratulation by the ruling left-wing Alianza Pais (AP). However, those private economists who more often than not tend to see the glass as half empty were much more cautious, noting that the result was less impressive than it appeared because it was largely a statistical correction from the sharp contraction in the equivalent quarter of 2016, when GDP had shrunk by another 2.5% (giving a full year of recession). As such, they suggest, it is too soon, as yet, to declare Ecuador’s economy out of the woods.