Relations with multinationals and the World Bank In 2013, the National Court of Ecuador fined the US oil company Chevron to a fine of US $ 9.5 billion for pollution in the Amazon region. In March 2014, however, a New York court dismissed the motion of Ecuadorian plaintiffs trying to enforce the verdict in the […]

Relations with Colombia After relations with Colombia were heavily strained between 2006 and 2009 and were completely interrupted for 20 months, a process of normalization began in November 2009 , which was provisionally concluded in January 2011 with the exchange of ambassadors. In 2006, machines of the Colombian Air Force broke into the airspace of […]

Estimated GDP: US $ 107.4 billion (2019) Per capita income (purchasing power parity): US $ 11,846 (2019) Human Development Rank (HDI): Rank 85 (of 189) Proportion of poverty (less than $ 1.90 per day): 3.3% (2018) Distribution of income (Gini coefficient): 44.7 (2019) Economic Transformation Index (BTI): Rank 60 (out of 137) Economic order The […]

Macroeconomic situation and foreign trade With a GDP per capita of US $ 6,184 (2019, World Bank), Ecuador is a middle-income country in the upper segment. The economic development of Ecuador was largely positive over the past few years when it solely on the basis of macroeconomic data rates. Thus, the growth of GDP in […]

Since the Spanish conquest, cultural life in Ecuador has been characterized by the confrontation of two cultural areas: the European and the Indian cultural area. For about a decade, indigenous groups have shown themselves to be an emerging new political force. Number of literate adults: 94% Major religions: Catholicism 95%, Protestantism 2%, other 3% Urban […]

Culture Visual arts The important artists of the colonial era include Caspicara and Caspar Sangurima, whose sculptures and paintings can now be seen in the San Francisco Church in Quito and in the Museo de las Conceptas in Cuenca. Among the outstanding artists of the recent past are the internationally renowned painters Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919-1999) […]

Education Despite initiatives by the government, educational opportunities in Ecuador are unevenly distributed overall: regionally, because rural areas are undersupplied; social, because a private education system, which is usually well-funded, is opposed to a largely deficit state school education; and cultural, because the identity of the large group of indigenous peoples is not sufficiently taken […]

Entry and residence regulations Due to the corona pandemic, which is still severely affecting Ecuador, ” entry is currently only possible by air for people who do not have a permanent residence in Ecuador. The land borders are closed except for the return of residents. Entry must A negative PCR test that is less than […]

Currency: U.S$ Exchange rate: 1.08 per € (March 2020) Time zone: CET-6 Country code (phone): +593 Climate (for Quito): moderate (cold tropical) International Airport (IATA): UIO (Quito), GYE (Guayaquil) Basically, you can look forward to a pronounced hospitality and friendliness towards strangers, but you should also look forward to immense social contrasts, a machismo that […]

History Ecuador looks back on the longest democratic period in its history. At the same time, the political system has been undermined in recent decades by informal factors such as corruption, the personal interests of individual politicians and family clans, and political scandals. However, since 2007 there have been numerous structural reforms and overall political […]