Yearbook 1998
Ecuador. On July 12, a new president was elected: Jamil Mahuad, the capital of Quito’s mayor and representative of the Christian Democratic Center Party Democracia Popular (DP). He replaced the incumbent President Fabián Alarcón, who was interim appointed in February 1997 when then-President Abdalá Bucaram was deposed for alleged mental inadequacy. After the first round of elections on May 31, two main candidates had been crystallized, but none with their own majority: Jamil Mahuad, who got 36.7% of the vote, and plantation owner Alvaro Noboa, who represented the right-wing populist Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano (PRE) and got 29.7%. In January, the PRE nominated President Bucaram for his nomination, but the nomination was rejected by Ecuador’s Law Council, which adopted an addition to the Constitution.
After the second round of elections on July 12, Mahuad won the election by a small majority, 51.2% of the vote against Noboa’s 48.2%. The turnout was 70%. Noboa, however, did not want to admit defeat, but blamed the winning side for electoral fraud, which was rejected by international observers. Mahuad took office on August 10.
During the year, negotiations on the border crossing between Ecuador and neighboring Peru continued in 1995. At the beginning of the year, a timetable for the continued negotiations was signed and a commission to lead the work was appointed. However, relations cooled considerably when two Peruvian soldiers were injured in late July by a mine in the border area. Peru accused Ecuador of deploying the mine while Ecuador countered with counter-accusations of Peruvian troops moving in the area. According to Countryaah, the capital of Ecuador is Quito. Peru’s President Alberto Fujimori canceled a planned state visit to Ecuador in connection with Jamil Mahuad’s presidential installation. In mid-August, representatives of the countries could agree to create a demilitarized zone between them and to resume border negotiations. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States were selected as mediators, i.e. the same countries that had mediated in 1942 when the previous border agreement between Ecuador and Peru was signed. At the end of October, both Presidents Alberto Fujimori and Jamil Mahuad were able to sign a new border agreement.
Ecuador is one of the countries most affected by the weather phenomenon of El Niño ravages. Damage from the violent rainfall and subsequent floods and landslides that hit the country at the end of 1997, according to government estimates, would cost more than SEK 15 billion. to fix.
Economy
| Inflation rate | 0.40% |
| Unemployment rate | 4.6% |
| Gross domestic product (GDP) | 193,000,000,000 USD |
| GDP growth rate | 2.40% |
| GDP per capita | $ 11,500 |
| GDP by sector | |
| Agriculture | 6.70% |
| Industry | 32.90% |
| Service | 60.40% |
| State budget | |
| Revenue | 11.26 billion |
| Expenditure | 9.928 billion |
| Proportion of the population below the national poverty line | 25.6% |
| Distribution of household income | |
| Top 10% | 38.3 |
| Lower 10% | 1.4 |
| Industrial production growth rate | -3.20% |
| Investment volume | 22.2% of GDP |
| National debt | 45.40% of GDP |
| Foreign exchange reserves | 3,935,000,000 USD |
| Tourism | 2014 |
| Visitors | 1,557,000 |
| Revenue | $ 1,487,000,000 |
