Economy driven by substantial petroleum resources, which in recent years have accounted for 40% of the country's export earnings and one-fourth of public sector revenues. The country’s strategic location has attracted twenty-first century investors and businessmen to the country. Ecuador now has the U.S. dollar as its official currency. It is the world’s largest banana producer. Key Industries: Petroleum, Food Processing, Textiles, Wood products, Chemicals Key Imports: Industrial Materials, Fuels and Lubricants, Non-Durable Consumer Goods Key Exports: Petroleum, Bananas, Cut Flowers, Shrimp, Cacao, Hemp, Wood, Fish

Ecuador has substantial oil resources and rich agricultural areas. Oil has been the dominant sector in the country’s economy since 1970. Given the country’s primary exports (oil, bananas, and shrimp), fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic impact.

Over the last century, economic development depended on the exports of first cocoa and then bananas. Now most recently, Ecuador has gained worldwide distribution for its cut flowers.

The country's chronically large foreign debt continues to weight on economic growth. Due to heavy borrowing in the boom years of the 1970s, the government found itself unable to meet foreign debt obligations by the late 1980s. Even though Ecuador had resumed its foreign debt payments by 1989 and was again exporting oil, its economic future has remained uncertain.