TY  - SER
AU  - Lapper, Richard
AU  - Moss, Nicholas
TI  - CRITICS CALL FOR MAHUAD TO QUIT AS CURRENCY HITS RECORD LOW
KW  - CRISIS MONETARIA TIPO DE CAMBIO ECUADOR DEVALUACION DOLARIZACION
KW  - CRISIS MONETARIA - ECUADOR
KW  - 11
KW  - 3ext146
KW  - EC
N2  - At the end of last year it was difficult to imagine how things could get much tougher for Ecuador's troubled president Jamil Mahuad. This week, they have. Already facing a severe recession and the spectre of triple digit inflation, Ecuador has suffered a renewed attack on its currency, the sucre. Yesterday's fall of 17 per cent in early trading took the sucre to a new low of 29,000 to the dollar, compared with an expected level of about 20,000 when the government announced its revised budget targets in December.The president Mahuad is again under fire from critics on all sides of the political spectrum. Yesterday he declared a state of emergency in a bid to head off protests calling for his resignation
ER  -