A new
report shows that the Correa government boosted Ecuador's social and
economic indicators with socially-driven and "solidarity-based"
policy.
Despite
global financial crises that have rocked the small South American
nation in recent years, Ecuador has managed to achieve landmark
social and economic progress in the past decade under the left-wing
government of President Rafael Correa, according to a new report from
the Center for Economic and Policy Research released Monday.
The
report, titled "Decade of Reform: Ecuador’s Macroeconomic
Policies, Institutional Changes, and Results," looks at key
economic and social indicators, as well as policy, institutional, and
regulatory changes in Ecuador since Correa took office in 2007,
highlighting positive developments despite economic recession and
plummeting global oil prices.
The
country's most striking achievements in this period include slashing
the poverty rate by 38 percent and the extreme poverty rate by 47
percent, fueled by economic growth and employment programs that have
offered a boost to many of the country's poorest communities.
What's
more, the report also argues that Correa's administration has ushered
in historic political stability after tumultuous period that saw
eight presidents in 10 years before the left-wing government came to
power.
"Despite
some turbulence and the harsh economic shocks associated with the
2008–09 world financial crisis and recession, and then a second oil
price collapse beginning in 2014 ... the government achieved
unprecedented political stability," the report stated.
As
part of a battle against inequality, the government also doubled
social spending from 4.3 percent of the country's GDP in 2006 to 8.6
percent in 2016, which included an increase in spending on education,
health, and urban development and housing.
Government
expenditures on health services doubled as a percentage of GDP from
2006 to 2016, and spending on higher education also increased from
0.7 to 2.1 percent of GDP, the highest level of government spending
on higher education in Latin America.
"The
experience of Ecuador over the past decade is also relevant because
it indicates that a government of a relatively small, lower-middle
income developing country is less restricted by the global economy,
or 'globalization,' than is commonly believed," stated the
report, suggesting that Ecuador could be an example for other
countries in the global south to follow.
"The
government was able to take advantage of a much wider range of policy
choices than those generally thought to be available to developing
countries of its size and income level, or even to developing
countries generally," it concluded, highlighting the
government's innovative approach.
According
to the report, these results were not driven by a “commodities
boom,” but from deliberate policy choices and reforms that Correa
championed, including defaulting on illegitimate debt, taxing capital
leaving the country and responsible and "solidarity-based"
fiscal policy, among others.
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