Ecuador president names Jaramillo as new finance minister

QUITO (Reuters) -Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has named Luis Alberto Jaramillo as the country’s new finance minister and confirmed interim energy and oil minister Ines Manzano in her post, presidential decrees showed.

The changes, decreed late on Wednesday and on Thursday, come after leftist Luisa Gonzalez performed unexpectedly well in a first round of the presidential election on Sunday, locking Noboa in a tight April race for reelection.

Jaramillo has been serving as the minister of production and will be replaced in that role by Carlos Zaldumbide.

The International Monetary Fund said in December that its executive board completed the first review of an extended fund facility for Ecuador, allowing for an immediate disbursement of around $500 million.

Outgoing finance minister Juan Carlos Vega, who had served since November 2023, announced his departure in a letter posted on social media, saying government income had been strengthened and debts paid during his tenure.

Manzano replaced her predecessor as energy minister during widespread, planned power cuts last October.

Noboa has deployed the military on the streets and in prisons to try to improve a dire security situation blamed on crime gangs.

(Reporting by Alexandra ValenciaWriting by Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Leslie Adler)