With the strain of COVID rippling thru the country’s business sector, one of the hardest hit areas is the real estate market. In a country that only 6 years ago often had inventory shortages, the impact of the pandemic is leaving behind a housing slump. In addition to...
UPDATES 11-24-2020
Update to: Ecuador has no immediate plans to open borders with Peru and Colombia Published: Volume 5, Issue 4 Ecuador will maintain border closures with Peru and Colombia for the remainder of 2020 Juan Carlos Zevallos, Ecuador’s Minister of Health, announced last Thursday after meeting with the Emergency Operations Committee that there will be no […]
Overall hospitalizations fall while ICU patients and deaths rise
Tracking the spread and outcome of the coronavirus in Ecuador: UPDATED FOR TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020 Like last week, across the country, reported cases of coronavirus are going up, hospitals are close to full and ICU beds are becoming scarcer, and places that had seemed to stop the virus—for example, Guayaquil and Quito—are seeing it […]
Ministry of Finance seeks help to launch $3 billion bond, IMF nears approval of disbursement of $2 billion in December
Finance Minister Mauricio Pozo announced on Thursday that the country is negotiating the support of multilateral organizations to issue a bond in the international markets to support the private productive sector. Ecuador is in negotiations to issue an international...
I hope you all can be thankful this year
“I’m thankful.” It’s the time of year for us to all look back on how things have gone, and are going for us, and hopefully feel that way. This year that will be difficult for so many people. Not just here, or in the US, but throughout the world. So many people have...
Ecuador plays an unfortunate role in South America’s drug trade
In what would be an amusing anecdote if it didn’t portend a serious problem, police in Cuenca on Monday seized 5.7kg of cocaine that had been hidden inside six religious relief plaques. The drug was actually mixed with a material that creates a reddish-brown tone substance with a gritty texture. The mixture is then formed […]
CUENCA SHORT STORIES
Electricity and water cutoffs start in 2021 for unpaid bills In Cuenca, service shutoffs of electricity and drinking water for debtor subscribers will begin in 2021. Over the next five weeks, subscribers who have not caught up on their bills will be contacted to offer them a payment plan of up to twelve months. The benefit […]
$2.4 billion in Chinese loans tied to oil sales not likely to happen in 2020
Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno announced last week that it looked unlikely that the country would be able to meet China’s oil quota requirements for a $2.4 billion loan that had been expected by year’s end. Ecuador is looking for alternatives in case the negotiations to obtain two loans with the state bank of China are […]