Adoption of United States Dollar as New Currency

At the end of 1999 going into early 2000, Ecuador’s currency of Sucre lost 67% of its foreign exchange rate. This resulted in the presidents of Ecuador, Gustavo Noboa, to change the currency from 25,000 Sucre to the equivalency of 1 United States dollar. With President Noboa having signed a law March 9^th, 2000 to put this currency exchanging in effect. Resulting in Ecuador receiving a financial aid package that was over 2 billion dollars from different banks and corporations to help assist them out of the for the next three years to help in improving their currency rate such as the International Monetary Fund. Only allowing for the Sucre coin to be used and the dollar to be used for larger transactions. Hoping that adopting the United States dollar would improve the economy especially with over half of the population in Ecuador are stuck in poverty. 

             Ecuador’s currency exchange from Sucre to the US dollar portrays a clear indication of how neoliberalism has made its impact on Ecuador. Where during this time period there were several foreign lenders that would utilize the International Monetary Fund in hope of solving their economic issues (Chasteen). Such as how Ecuador needed to change its currency to the US dollar. This International Monetary Fund was also seen as a way that would be encouraging Latin American countries to lean towards Neoliberalism. Especially with many Latin American countries struggling like Ecuador with inflation and neoliberalism helped out with this and promoted neoliberalist policies due to the fact that it curved inflations (Chasteen). 

Works Cited

“BBC News | AMERICAS | Ecuador Adopts US Dollar.” n.d. Accessed March 5, 2021. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/672247.stm.

Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood and Fire. 4rd edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2016.