The people of Ecuador are rising up to refound their country as a pluri-national homeland for all. This inspiring movement, with Ecuador's indigenous peoples at its heart, is part of the revolution spreading across the Americas, laying the groundwork for a new, fairer, world. Ecuador Rising aims to bring news and analysis of events unfolding in Ecuador to english speakers.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Ecuador to Favor Majority while Facing Crisis

Quito, Dec 24 (Prensa Latina) Ecuadorian Finance minister, Maria Elsa Viteri, said the national government will rationalize expenditures and adjust its budget in 2009 in favor of the majority.

“It is believed in the country that if a large package is not launched then the crisis isn’t being confronted. No, packages are for a kind of thinking; what we do to confront the crisis is to benefit the majority,” she explained.

Viteri pointed out the need to begin rationalizing, identifying priorities and optimizing expenditures to apply them where they are indispensable.

Speaking on national television, the official identified where these resources have not been uses properly and “we must learn how to optimize and take advantage of these investments.”

Insisting that there will not be an economic package she added that they will count on innovative initiatives and will know how to do things well.

At the same time, studies are under way to center on the subject of subsidies to optimize resources since “hard” times are expected due to the international financial crisis and the fall of the price of oil in the international market, the main exportable product of this country, she pointed out.

“The first quarter (of 2009) will be very hard on the price of oil” and we are talking of an average price a little lower than what we would have expected but during the second quarter in will improve a bit, he stressed.

Referring to the foreign debt and the moratorium declared in the payment of Global bonds considering them illegitimate and illegal he informed that during the beginning of 2009 he will present a plan of restructuring these papers that add up to a capital of 3.8 billion dollars.

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