Quito: The plenary session of the National Assembly (Parliament) of Ecuador approved with 84 votes in favor the controversial Law for the Defense of Dollarization, criticized by the opposition and which strengthens the monetary system adopted by the country in 2000.
With 86 affirmative votes, 41 negative votes, one blank and five abstentions, the plenary session of the Assembly approved in a second and definitive debate the reform project to the Monetary and Financial Code for the Defense of Dollarization.
The Assembly indicated on its Internet portal that the approval of the regulations will be sent in the next few hours to the President of the Republic, Lenín Moreno, for him to sanction or object.
The debate took place virtually. Both defenders and detractors of that law warned of the benefits and risks of the regulation, whose approval is conditional on the credit agreement for 6.5 billion dollars that the Ecuadorian government signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to the EFE agency, one of the biggest debates took place around the return of political and financial autonomy to the Central Bank, which, according to the critics, could be considered as a privatization of that entity.
For those who voted against it, the regulation has constitutional biases and opens the possibility for capital flight.
20 years ago, on January 9, 2000, the then president, Jamil Mahuad, took the measure of dollarizing the economy, which represented the abandonment of the sucre as a currency after the worst financial crisis that the South American country has faced.