Ecuador

Ecuador: Country Intelligence Briefing

Ecuador's fact bundle shows a mid-sized economy under meaningful debt pressure, moderate defense spending, a mixed governance profile per V-Dem v15, and energy data split between a current oil series and a stale gas figure.

Economy and Fiscal Position

GDP was $124.7 billion in 2024, with GDP per capita of $6,874.71 the same year, both per World Bank WDI. Population was 18,135,478 in 2024, per World Bank WDI. Government debt stood at 54.4 percent of GDP in 2025, per IMF WEO, and reserves were $6.1 billion in 2025, per IMF IFS.

Defense Posture

Military expenditure was $2.74 billion in 2025, per SIPRI Milex, equivalent to 2.096 percent of GDP under SIPRI's own GDP series for 2025 — a ratio that should not be checked against the separately sourced World Bank GDP figure above. Active personnel stood at 41,000 in 2022, per COW NMC, with a CINC score of 0.0014585089 the same year, also per COW NMC.

Governance

V-Dem v15 scores Ecuador's electoral democracy at 0.607 for 2025, with a lower liberal democracy score of 0.386 and a state capacity score of 0.372, both for the same year — the lowest of the three governance measures on file.

Energy

Primary energy consumption was 0.8306 exajoules and oil production was 297.075 terawatt-hours, both for 2024, per Our World in Data (Energy). Electricity generation was 36.6 terawatt-hours in 2025, per Our World in Data (Energy). Gas production, by contrast, is recorded at just 5.984 terawatt-hours dated to 2016, per Our World in Data (Energy) — a decade old and materially out of step with the current oil figure.

Data Gaps

The gas production figure is nine years stale and should not be read alongside the current oil figure as if both describe present conditions. The active-personnel and CINC figures are from 2022, three years old relative to this briefing. The milex-to-GDP ratio uses SIPRI's own 2025 GDP denominator, distinct from the World Bank's 2024 GDP figure cited above, and the two should not be combined into a single calculation.

Sources: World Bank WDI; IMF WEO; IMF IFS; SIPRI Milex; COW NMC; V-Dem v15; Our World in Data (Energy).