Ecuador aims to turn corner with policy orthodoxy

Andean nation borrows $10bn from multilateral lenders but faces battle to avoid recession

Gideon Long in Guayaquil, Ecuador

When Richard Martínez took over as Ecuador’s finance minister in May last year, the country’s accounts were a mess.

President Lenín Moreno was picking up the pieces left by the previous leftwing government, which for a decade had financed Ecuador largely through opaque loans-for-oil deals with Beijing. It was not clear how much money Ecuador had borrowed from China nor how many barrels of crude it owed in return.

The country had turned its back on institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, relying instead on high oil prices to fund social programmes.