The leisure industry, Ecuador’s fourth hard-currency maker, is enduring the aftermath of a dollar economy implemented four years ago by the administration of former president Jamil Mahuad, sources close to the local travel industry informed.

Ecuador’s former Minister of the Economy, Rocio Vasquez, admitted in an interview with Management magazine that foreign tourism is taking a very slow burn, mostly as a result of pricier services within the sector.

The profitability of Spanish hotels plummeted 5 percent in 2003, said Ramon Estalella, secretary-general of the Hotel Association of Spanish Tourist Zones (ZONTUR is the acronym in Spanish); though no real data will be disclosed until March this year.

“We must bear in mind that we knew what we’re coping with in the first place because as soon as March last year we were very keyed up about the way 2003 was going. We knew 2003 was headed for disaster as result of the SARS outbreak and the war in Iraq,” Mr. Estalella pointed out.

The Chilean government underscored today its optimism toward economic projections for the ongoing year with GNP numbers in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 percent.

Consumer index, though, could grow a percentage point more than the nation’s GNP, Chile’s Finance Minister Nicolas Eyzaguirre said in a news conference escorted by his colleagues Jorge Rodriguez and Alfonso Dulanto, Ministers of the Economy and Mining, respectively.

Brazil’s gross national product (GNP) will grow 3.5 percent next year, a couple of private institutions reportedly pointed out this week in the nation’s capital.

The new forecast was independently made by the National Industry Confederation (NIC) and the Brazilian Society of Studies on Transnational Companies and Economic Globalization (BSSTCEG) based on reckonings of direct foreign investment expected to reach $15 billion in 2004.

Costa Rica is just within an ace of inking a free trade agreement with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Central American country’s Government Minister Ricardo Toledo reportedly said.

“The FTA with CARICOM is a fact and we’re going to sign it anytime soon. I wish it were this year,” Mr. Toledo was quoted as saying in morning newspaper La Prensa Libre. The signing ceremony could take place in Jamaica as soon as the island nation’s secretary-general Edward Greene gives it the green light.

The arrival of tourists to Chile soured 12.8 percent this year with dramatic increases in the number of European travelers, the country’s National Tourism Service (SERNATUR) reported this week. A grand total of 1,676,976 visitors spent $1.04 billion in Chilean territory for a solid 8.4 percent growth compared to last year’s digits, the state-run service informed.