 | Home - Yahoo! - Help |  |
[ Business | US Market | By Industry | IPO | AP | S&P | International | PRNews | BizWire | CCN ]
| Home - Yahoo! - Help | |
[ Business | US Market | By Industry | IPO | AP | S&P | International | PRNews | BizWire | CCN ]
QUITO, April 1 (Reuters) - Ecuador said its crippling inflation fell to 7.6 percent in March from 13.5 percent the same month a year earlier as the nation tried to fight its way out of deep economic trouble.
The inflation level reflected in the nation's consumer price index, fell 10 percent from February 2000, the state-run Institute of Statistics and Censuses reported Friday.
Ecuador said cumulative inflation for the first quarter of 20001 stood at 35.3 percent compared with 20.2 percent during the same period a year earlier.
Annualized inflation in March was at 80.9 percent.
In December inflation stood at 60.7 percent, the highest level in Latin America for the second year running, as the economy staggered under a massive currency devaluation and rising unemployment.
Ecuador plans to adopt the U.S. dollar as its currency and has lined up multinational funds as part of moves to escape from its worst economic crisis in decades.
The government of President Gustavo Noboa hopes to cut inflation to below 65 percent by the end of 2000.
Ecuador's economic crisis began in 1998 after disastrous tropical storms and a fall in the price of oil. The impoverished country of 12.4 million people is Latin America's fourth largest exporter of crude oil and sixth biggest producer.
Many Ecuadoreans blame corruption and mismanagement by Noboa's People's Democracy party for the economic problems.