On Sunday evening, presidential candidates Luisa González (RC) and Daniel Noboa (ADN) spoke about economic topics, but in a vague way. Thus, the issues of international reserves, dollarization and pensions of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS) were present.

Luisa González said she would inject $2.5 billion in resources from a reserve located in Switzerland; while Daniel Noboa moderated his original position, since he announced before the debate that he would take $1.5 billion, and now he said that it would be an alternative to z. Namely, he indicated that he sees the possibility of using that amount of reserves as remote.

But is it possible to bring a spare from Switzerland?

First, you need to know where this reserve is located, which consists of liquid assets managed by the Central Bank and belonging to private and public banks, decentralized autonomous governments (GAD), IESS, Ministry of Finance, among others. other.

As of September 22, 2023, international reserves fell to $6,769.3 million; However, it has overdue liabilities of $11.692 million, i.e. it has an “opening of $4.923 million”. Liquid assets (USD 6,769.3 million), which are normally used to conduct external operations with the world, are distributed as follows:

Some of these liquid sources may be in supranational organizations that have safe or investment grade credit ratings and that operate in legal jurisdictions that recognize the immunity of Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE) funds. For example, gold would be in Switzerland or England.

Alberto Acosta Burneo explained that “bringing money from the reserve” is more of a political term used instead of saying “I will spend money from the reserve”, which does not matter where the physical location is. reserve, because although it is outside, it is not freely available to the Government, but to the owners.

There are several factors that prevent the use of the reserve:

Is global de-dollarization good for Ecuador’s dollarized economy?

During the debate, the presidential candidates mentioned the issue of dollarization. Candidate Noboa asked candidate González how long the de-dollarization of the Ecuadorian economy will take, in line with the opinion of the Puebla group, which last Saturday mentioned that the de-dollarization of the world economy is important to fight against globalization and American hegemony in an event attended by Rafael Correa.

González replied that de-dollarization had been talked about for fifteen years and that it had not happened. Furthermore, what was being discussed in Puebla was a global commercial exchange system independent of the dollar. He assured that his party wants the dollar to be the currency of Ecuador and that Noboa does not accept that, so he preferred to present the idea that Noboa wants de-dollarization.

According to Alberto Acosta Burne, those who believe that global de-dollarization is not related or would not affect Ecuador’s monetary system are wrong. The use of other currencies around the world would affect a country that is dollarized, because it would start receiving currencies of a different type, less accepted around the world, or would have to accumulate balances in different currencies, as already happened when it was within the Sucre initiative. .

Can the minimum age pension be raised to $450?

Another key moment of the debate was when moderator Ruth del Salto asked the candidates how they would strengthen social security. Daniel Noboa spoke about his offer to increase pensions to a value corresponding to the basic salary. Then Del Salto asked where he would be able to finance these values.

Noboa indicated that this will be achieved by increasing the number of jobs. Also, that they will catch up with IESS and that they will buy back the bonds that the government “stunnedly” sold to IESS.

The moderator also asked Luisa González if she would take the measure then taken by Rafael Correa’s government to abolish the 40% pension contribution. The candidate replied that she will be the president. He also said that when 40 percent was withdrawn, it was done in addition to paying the money that was needed to pay pensions.

On that topic, Mauricio Espinel, coordinator of the Study Group for Social Security, explained that this measure will not be applicable.

As for the possibility of Luisa González withdrawing 40% again for pensions, he thinks they could do it, because they have done it before. But since there are no funds to pay the pensions, they could do it with Ecuadorian dollars. This is in line with the economic structure proposed by his political group. However, he warned, it stops dollarization.

According to Jaime Carrera, the debate brought very little information on economic and fiscal issues. “Nothing was said about the deficit or how to reduce it, and in the midst of shortages how to finance insecurity and other needs.” In this sense, he believes that it has been observed that there is a lot of ignorance about this topic. Additionally, he asserts that the two candidates either don’t understand fiscal complexity or aren’t saying it, because it’s something people don’t want to hear.

For Carrera, the transcendent question of the debate is not what everyone can offer, but choosing a government that is far from denying freedoms, that values ​​democracy, that does not persecute and divide the country.