Ecuador: Economic activity accelerates in December

In December, economic activity expanded 3.3% year-on-year, according to the monthly indicator for economic activity (IDEAC, Índice de Actividad Económica Coyuntural). The reading marked an improvement from November’s 2.7% increase and the highest figure in two years.

On a month-on-month basis, economic activity in December increased 0.30% in seasonally-adjusted terms, which was below the 0.40% increase recorded in November. In December, the annual average variation in economic activity fell to minus2.7%, from November’s minus 3.3% and marked the best reading in 11 months.

Panelists surveyed for this month’s LatinFocus report see GDP expanding 0.1% in 2017, which is up 0.4 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2018, panelists expect the economy to grow 0.7%.