Twenty years of official dollarization in Ecuador: a blessing or a curse?

Ecuador adopted the U.S. dollar as its legal tender in January 2000, in a context of deep economic and political crisis. Almost two decades later in December 2019, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a total disbursement of US$498 million after the completion of the second and third reviews under the Extended Fund Facility Arrangement. The financial agreement with the IMF had been concluded in March 2019, under the presidency of Lenin Moreno, in order to address the country’s growing external financing needs. Within the framework of the macroeconomic program supported by the IMF, Ecuadorian authorities committed to ensure fiscal sustainability, re-build the international reserves of the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE), and strengthen the institutional foundations of official dollarization.