[17] Ecuador's economy is based on the export of oil, bananas, shrimp, gold, other primary agricultural products and money transfers from Ecuadorian emigrants employed abroad.

[17] Exports of non-traditional products such as cut flowers ($846 million in 2017) and canned fish ($1.18 billion in 2017) have grown in recent years.

[40] Pines and cedars are planted in the region of the Sierra, walnuts and rosemary, and balsa wood, on Guayas River Basin.

[52] During the 2023-2024 Ecuador electricity crisis, in the fall of 2024, the amount of thermal generation was significantly lower than the numbers above would suggest.

Among other notable Ecuadorian scientists and engineers are Lieutenant Jose Rodriguez Labandera,[60] who built the first submarine in Latin America in 1837; Reinaldo Espinosa Aguilar (1898–1950), a botanist and biologist of Andean flora; and José Aurelio Dueñas (1880–1961), a chemist and inventor of a method of textile serigraphy, reputed to have many wives.

[61] The scientific production in hard sciences has been limited due to lack of funding but focused around physics, statistics, and partial differential equations in mathematics.

[citation needed] In the case of engineering fields, the majority of scientific production comes from the top three polytechnic institutions: Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral – ESPOL, Universidad de Las Fuerzas Armadas – ESPE, and Escuela Politécnica Nacional EPN.

[66] Ecuador has negotiated bilateral treaties with other countries, besides belonging to the Andean Community of Nations,[67] and an associate member of Mercosur.

The crisis was precipitated by a number of external shocks, including the El Niño weather phenomenon in 1997, a sharp drop in global oil prices in 1997–98, and international emerging market instability in 1997–98.

On January 9, 2000, the administration of President Jamil Mahuad announced its intention to adopt the U.S. dollar as the official currency of Ecuador to address the ongoing economic crisis.

Buoyed by higher oil prices, the Ecuadorian economy experienced a modest recovery in 2000–01, with GDP rising 2.3% in 2000 and 5.4% in 2001.

[84] The Ecuadorian government has made huge investments in education and infrastructure throughout the nation, which have improved the lives of the poor.

[85] On December 12, 2008, President Rafael Correa announced that Ecuador would not pay $30.6m in interest to lenders of a $510m loan, claiming that they were monsters.

[86] In addition it claimed that $3.8bn in foreign debt negotiated by previous administrations was illegitimate because it was authorized without executive decree.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Ecuador was the third largest source of foreign oil to the western United States in 2014.

[87] President Correa's plans to begin extracting crude oil from the Ishpingo, Tambochoa, and Tiputini field in Yasuní National Park in the Amazon to provide an economic boost did not salvage the economy from going into recession.

[87] Ecuador's economic slowdown in 2016 and the country's need for external finance were exacerbated by a deadly April 2016 earthquake.

[87] Ecuador's estimated $3 billion costs for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance for 720,000 people in the affected region remain a burden that the government and private sector have sought to address.

[87] The Correa government also asked China for an additional $7.5 billion in financing in early 2015 as crude oil prices—the nation's biggest export—weakened further.

[87] According to press reports, some private sector analysts question whether Ecuador will be able to meet its debt obligations given two strains on the country's public finances: the slump in oil income due to the commodity's low price and the strong U.S. dollar, which, as a result of Ecuador's dollarized economy, makes the country's exports less globally competitive.

[87] Following Venezuela's acceptance in 2012 to full membership in the South American customs union, Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur or Common Market of the South), the leftist governments in Bolivia and Ecuador applied to move from observer status to full membership in the trade bloc originally composed of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

[26] This arrangement would provide support ($10 billion) for the Ecuadorian government's economic policies over three years (2018–2021 Prosperity Plan).

[93] This is explained largely by emigration and economic stability achieved after adopting the U.S. dollar as official means of transaction .

[94] Poverty rates were higher for indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and rural areas, reaching 44% of the Native ancestry population.

The industrial sector's main problem is the deficit of energy,[95] which the current government has tackled with the improvement of performance on existing hydro plants, and the creation of new ones.

[95][96] Incentives of financing, tributary incentives, tariffs, and others will be implemented, that is intended to benefit areas of tourism, food processing, renewable and alternative energy sources, bioenergies, pharmaceutical and chemical products, biochemical and environmental biomedecine, services, automotive metallurgical industry, footwear, and automotive parts and pieces, among others.

[95] A 500 kV transmission line increases national grid strength and electricity trade with Peru and Colombia.