The US dollar became legal tender in Ecuador on March 13, 2000, replacing the sucre, which had been plagued by inflation and instability.
The sucre maintained a fairly stable exchange rate against the US dollar until 1983, when it was devalued to 42 per dollar. Depreciation gained momentum and the free market rate was over 800 per dollar by 1990 and almost 3000 per in 1995. The sucre lost 67% of its foreign exchange value during 1999, reaching 25,000/US$1 on January 7, 2000. On January 9, President Jamil Mahuad announced that the US dollar would be adopted as Ecuador’s official currency (Read more at wikipedia.org)
Since Ecuador’s dollarization, the country’s currency has been tied to the U.S. resulting in added economic stability. Combined with the tourism industry and exports of oil, bananas, shrimp, gold, other primary agricultural products, the government has passed a number of economic policy reforms to helped steer the Ecuadorian economy to sustained, substantial, and focused growth. Recent improvements in infrastructure, airports and roads has made it easier and safer to get around, further demonstrating a commitment to these goals.