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Economic crisis and COVID-19 in Ecuador: Impact on exports

Abstract:

Through the years Ecuador has gone through several economic crises that have affected political, social, environmental and cultural aspects. In this work, the exports of Ecuador in the period 1998-2020 are statistically analyzed, the objective is to determine what has been the impact on the level of exports with respect to the economic crises in that period. A documentary investigative work was carried out, reviewing the export figures published in official organizations such as the Central Bank of Ecuador. Graphs show the total amount of annual exports, emphasizing the export level during the looming crises after the El Niño phenomenon in 1998, the banking holiday in 1999, dollarization in 2000, the limited productivity of oil in 2002, the real estate crisis in 2008 and its repercussions on the price of crude oil in 2009, the earthquake in Manabí in 2016 and the Covid-19 pandemic. The investigation determined that 2015 was the year with the lowest amount in exports with an approximate decrease of -28%, caused mainly by the fall in oil prices at the international level, demonstrating how dependent the country’s economy is on this resource.