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Ecuador 1999 customs revenue dip 45 pct vs 1998

QUITO, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Ecuador's customs revenue in 1999 was $602 million, 45 percent lower than 1998, due to a severe fall in imports during a deep recession, the customs office said Wednesday.

Customs revenue totaled $1.08 billion in 1998.

The customs office said revenue for December 1999 fell to $53 million from $87 million in the same month of 1998.

Ecuador is in the midst of its worst social and economic crisis in five decades. The national currency, the sucre, shed two-thirds of its value last year while inflation was 60.7 percent and the economy contracted 7.5 percent.

The one-month-old government of President Gustavo Noboa is in the process of trying to adopt the U.S. dollar as official currency to stabilize the economy.