Note: This currency has been replaced by the US Dollar.
Overview
The official currency of Ecuador was the Ecuador Sucre (ECS); it was in circulation from 1884 to 2000. The Sucre was subdivided into 100 centavos, which are equal to 10 decimos. The United States Dollar replaced the Sucre in 2000.
Economy
Ecuador’s economy is based on export products, including shrimp, bananas, oil, and gold.
Tha main industries are chemicals, wood products, petroleum, textiles, and food processing.
Unemployment in the country is 5.9%.
Import products are lubricants and fuels, industrial materials, and nondurable consumer goods.
Industrial-based businesses are limited, due to the lack of electricity resources.
Service industries account for 60.3% of the yearly GDP.
History
In 1884, the Ecuador Peso was changed to the Ecuador sucre. It became part of the silver standard and 22.5g silver = 5 Latin Monetary Union Francs.
All substandard coins were taken out of circulation from 1887 to 1892. Good quality silver coins remained in circulation.
In 1898, the country switched over to the gold standard and the Sucre was evaluated at 2 shillings Sterling = 732.224 mg gold.
After 1914, when World War I began, the Sucre was made non-convertible.
In 1927, the Sucre was re-established and became part of the gold exchange standard; 300.933mg fine gold = 0.20 USD.
The gold exchange standard was dropped in 1932 and the sucre was fixed to the US Dollar at 5.95 Sucre = 1 USD.
A crawling peg was implemented in 1983.
The turmoil caused by devaluation of the sucre forced the country to adopt the USD as the official currency in 2000.
People were able to exchange Sucre notes until the end of March 2001.
