Ecuador is substantially dependent on its petroleum resources, which have accounted for more than half of the country's export earnings and approximately two-fifths of public sector revenues in recent years. In 1999/2000, Ecuador suffered a severe economic crisis as a result of a banking crisis with GDP contracting by 5.3%. Poverty increased significantly and Ecuador defaulted on some of its external debt. In March 2000, the Congress approved a series of structural reforms that also provided for the adoption of the US dollar as legal tender. Dollarization stabilized the economy, and positive growth returned in the years that followed, helped by high oil prices, remittances, and increased non-traditional exports. From 2002-06 the economy grew an average of 5.2% per year, the highest five-year average in 25 years. After moderate growth in 2007, the economy reached a growth rate of 7.2% in 2008, in large part due to high global petroleum prices and increased public sector investment. President Rafael CORREA, who took office in January 2007, defaulted in December 2008 on Ecuador's sovereign debt, which, with a total face value of approximately US$3.2 billion, represented about 30% of Ecuador's public external debt. In May 2009, Ecuador bought back 91% of its "defaulted" bonds via an international reverse auction. Economic policies under the CORREA administration - including an announcement in late 2009 of its intention to terminate 13 bilateral investment treaties, including one with the United States - have generated economic uncertainty and discouraged private investment. The Ecuadorian economy slowed to 0.4% growth in 2009 due to the global financial crisis and to the sharp decline in world oil prices and remittance flows. Growth picked up to a 3.6% rate in 2010 and 6.5% in 2011. The government in 2011 signed a $2 billion loan with the state-owned China Development Bank, received $1 billion under a two-year forward sale of an oil contract, negotiated $571 million in financing with China's Eximbank for a new hydroelectric project, and announced plans to obtain further Chinese loans in 2012. China has become Ecuador's largest foreign bilateral lender since Quito defaulted in 2008, allowing the government to maintain a high rate of social spending.

4.682 million (urban) (2011 est.)

Data for urban households only (2010 est.)

$8.202 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$6.421 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$26.55 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$22.18 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$21.15 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$16.62 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$5.779 billion (31 December 2011)

$5.263 billion (31 December 2010)

$4.248 billion (31 December 2009)

Bananas, coffee, cocoa, rice, potatoes, manioc (tapioca), plantains, sugarcane; cattle, sheep, pigs, beef, pork, dairy products; fish, shrimp; balsa wood

Petroleum, food processing, textiles, wood products, chemicals

6.51 billion bbl (1 January 2011 est.)

7.985 billion cu m (1 January 2011 est.)

Petroleum, bananas, cut flowers, shrimp, cacao, coffee, wood, fish

US 38.3%, Panama 10.1%, Peru 6.3%, Venezuela 5.3%, Chile 5%, Russia 4.6% (2009 est.)

Industrial materials, fuels and lubricants, nondurable consumer goods

US 27.9%, China 10.3%, Colombia 9.2%, Panama 4.6%, Peru 4.6%, Brazil 4.3%, South Korea 4.1% (2009 est.)

$2.958 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$2.622 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$10.05 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$14.81 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$12.33 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$11.82 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$6.346 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$6.839 billion (31 December 2010 est.)