Non-oil exports, 2025 · Banco Central del Ecuador
USD sole legal tender since 2000
US–Ecuador Reciprocal Trade Agreement signed · USTR
FDI growth, 2025 · Banco Central del Ecuador
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Ecuador.com is a privately owned, independent commercial-information platform — not an arm of the Government of Ecuador, not an affiliate of ProEcuador or the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade and Investment, not connected to the Banco Central del Ecuador (BCE), and not a regulated investment adviser. The figures on this page are drawn from publicly available sources and our own editorial assessment built up since the mid-1990s, and may not reflect the most current regulatory position. Nothing here is investment, legal, or tax advice.
Not a forecast — the structure that is already in place. Three foundations underpin the diversification story, each documented in depth across the platform’s sector coverage.
Ecuador has used the US dollar as sole legal tender since 2000, and constitutionally enshrined dollarisation in 2025. There is no devaluation channel and no foreign-exchange risk; repatriation of profits and capital is in dollars. In January 2026 Ecuador returned to international capital markets for the first time since 2019, with a US$4 billion issuance, under an active IMF Extended Fund Facility programme.
The US–Ecuador Reciprocal Trade Agreement, signed 13 March 2026, opens duty-free access for more than 1,000 Ecuadorian products covering roughly half of non-oil exports, with entry into force the later of 1 August 2026 or completion of legal procedures. The China–Ecuador Free Trade Agreement has been in force since May 2024, covering roughly 90% of tariff lines. Seven trade agreements are currently active.
The national mining cadastre, frozen since January 2018, reopened in phased form through 2025–2026. Ecuador has two producing large mines — Fruta del Norte (gold, Lundin Gold) and Mirador (copper, CMOC/EcuaCorriente) — and a named project pipeline above US$14 billion in copper and gold. Mining operates within Ecuador’s environmental and Indigenous-consultation frameworks.
These are the market’s reasons, not ours: a US trade agreement with a defined entry-into-force window, a return to international capital markets, an active IMF programme, and an export base broadening beyond oil. The economy is repricing — and it is doing so now, regardless of who is watching.
US ART entry-into-force target
Capital-markets re-entry, Jan 2026 · first since 2019
IMF Extended Fund Facility · fifth review, Apr 2026
Real GDP growth, 2025 · Banco Central del Ecuador
Six sector briefings — Galápagos and eco-tourism, aquaculture and agricultural exports, mining and critical minerals, energy infrastructure, climate finance and carbon markets, and dollarised financial services.
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