Ecuador Systematic Country Diagnostic

Resumen

During the last fifteen years, Ecuador’s
\n economic growth translated into impressive social gains.
\n Yet, structural vulnerabilities emerged during this period
\n and remained hidden by favorable external conditions during
\n the commodity boom. The plunge in oil prices unveiled
\n deep-rooted challenges such as macroeconomic imbalances,
\n inefficiencies of the public sector, weak competitiveness,
\n and underinvested private sector. Going forward, these are
\n priority challenges to be addressed for continuing reducing
\n poverty and boosting shared prosperity in a sustainable
\n manner. This SCD identifies the foundations of the
\n sustainable and inclusive growth process through a
\n prioritization of challenges and opportunities. Three key
\n elements must be in place for such growth process to take
\n place, which are the bases of the prioritization exercise:
\n (i) promoting macroeconomic sustainability; (ii) enabling an
\n efficient allocation of resources in the public and the
\n private sectors, and (iii) protecting the poor and the
\n vulnerable. Challenges and opportunities -grouped in four
\n pillars- are identified as priorities if they contribute
\n significantly to at least one of the above elements and do
\n not undermine the others. Another element considered in
\n this prioritization exercise is whether the identified
\n challenges or opportunities are expected to be addressed in
\n the short (ST), medium (MT) or long term (LT). The analysis
\n also evaluated the possible timeframe under which actions
\n are implemented toward tackling the identified difficulty or
\n achieving the identified goal. It also conveys a sense of
\n urgency in implementing such actions. The timeframe
\n considers the short term as being approximately within one
\n year, the medium term as within four to five years, and the
\n long term as more than five years.