Ecuador has capacity to pay, reiterates Minister of Economy

Ecuadornews:

The Ecuadorian Government has the ability to pay and a political commitment to meet its external debt obligations, said Economy Minister Carlos De la Torre.

The level of public indebtedness “is high” and reaches 57,000 million dollars, “but Ecuador is in financial capacity and has the political disposition to fulfill those commitments,” the minister said in an interview published today by the newspaper Expreso.

De la Torre said that the country could enter a moratorium or default and denied that there is a risk of insolvency as some economists have claimed.

That is “a false alarm”, he pointed out that the goal of the government is “to achieve, in one or two years, sustained growth rates of the Gross Domestic Product greater than 2.5 percent.”

In addition, “we expect the economy to be able to cope with reduced inflationary levels, a trade balance surplus of at least 1,000 million dollars and a goal of closing the fiscal deficit that, in a four-year horizon, allows us to reach 1 per percent of Gross Domestic Product with the consequent reduction of public debt, “he said.

To cover the financing needs that may arise, the minister said that he has held talks with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank as well as regional entities such as the Development Bank of Latin America and the Latin American Fund of Reservations.

Also with “the investment banking of several countries: the United States, Europe, banks of Chinese origin, and the issuance of sovereign bonds are never ruled out,” he said.  (I)

Source: http://www.larepublica.ec/blog/portada/2017/11/27/ecuador-tiene-capacidad-de-pago-reitera-ministro-de-economia/