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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (49669)	2/26/2000 9:54:00 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116780

Saturday February 26, 5:32 pm Eastern Time Ecuador mulls IMF suggested changes to dollar bill By Mario Naranjo QUITO, Ecuador, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund has suggested certain modifications to Ecuador's plan to adopt the U.S. dollar as its currency as the Ecuadorean Congress debated approving the dollarization bill. IMF officials Jeffrey Franks and John Thorton suggested the modifications Friday night, monetary authorities said without giving details. Ecuador's Congress had approved 49 of the bill's 85 articles by Friday night after four days of debate on the measures aimed at pulling the nation of 12.4 million people out of its worst socio-economic crisis in five decades. The idea of adopting the U.S. currency was first proposed Jan. 9 by then-President Jamil Mahuad but the plan proved to be the final straw for a population exasperated with the slow pace of measures to alleviate their dire economic circumstances. In a country where the average annual income is $1,100 the majority of the population, according to polls, oppose the dollarization saying it would lead to more poverty. Opposition to the dollarization helped boot Mahuad out of office Jan. 22 after thousands of Indian protesters won the military's support. Gustavo Noboa, Mahuad's vice president, was installed in the presidency but Noboa pledged to press on with his predecessor's economic reforms, including dollarization. Ecuador's national currency, the sucre, shed two-thirds of its value last year while inflation accelerated to 60.7 percent and the economy contracted 7.5 percent. The Andean nation has more than $13 billion in foreign debt, roughly the equivalent of its gross domestic product, and defaulted on part of its $6.5 billion in Brady and Eurobond debt in 1999. High ranking U.S. government officials are expected in Quito on Sunday to study the dollarization bill. The ``Economic Transformation Law' package includes bills which would allow greater job flexibility, open up the oil, electricity and telecommunications sectors to more foreign investment and make the dollar Ecuador's principle currency. The government says the laws will slash inflation and lure foreign investment. With some $1.3 billion in reserves, Ecuador would not be the first Latin American nation to adopt the greenback as its currency. Panama did so years ago and Argentina passed a convertibility law in 1991 guaranteeing as many U.S. dollars in central bank reserves as there are pesos in circulation. biz.yahoo.com