Ecuador: pandemic casts 30 percent below poverty threshold

Ecuador has managed to wrestle control of its Covid-19 situation, leaving the horrors of April 2020 firmly in the rear-view mirror. But the lasting effects of the pandemic will be harder to overcome: the resulting socioeconomic crisis has caused 2.3 million Ecuadorians to go hungry, and three out of ten citizens are now living below the breadline.

According to Economic and Social Inclusion Minister Mae Montaño, “the pandemic resulted in 6 million poor people” within a population of 17.6 million. There are significant fears over Ecuador’s economic future, as the country struggles to rekindle activity after the peak of the crisis. Ecuador’s GDP fell 7.8 percent last year, with at least 22,000 companies going under.

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