Jan 3 (Reuters) - Ecuador's economic growth was 3.2% in the third quarter of last year thanks to increased domestic consumption and government spending, the central bank said on Tuesday, raising its outlook for full-year 2022 expansion to 3.1%.
President Guillermo Lasso has pledged to improve the economy, which was battered by the coronavirus pandemic and weeks of anti-government protests last year.
The government has acknowledged that an oil production moratorium on 15 blocks will delay plans to double its output to 1 million barrels per day by 2025, but it has signed both a trade deal and a debt restructuring deal with China.
"These results show that the Ecuadorean economy has retaken its growth path, creating positive expectations for the fourth quarter of 2022 that will allow us to go beyond the most recent annual growth projection of 2.7% for 2022," the bank said in a statement.
The economy will have grown 3.1% last year, central bank head Guillermo Avellan said, which is close to its pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter of 2019.
Domestic consumption - which accounts for more than 65% of Ecuador's GDP, equivalent to some $11.8 billion - rose 3.8% during the third quarter compared with the same period in 2021, while government spending was up 2%.
Year-on-year growth between July and September was also due to expansions of 14.5% in the aquaculture and shrimp fishing sector, 11.8% in the housing and food services sector, 9.5% in electricity and water provision and 8% in communications and mail, the bank said.
The economy grew 1.7% in the third quarter compared with the second, said Avellan, adding full-year growth in 2023 is likely to be close to 3.1%. (Reporting by Yury Garcia in Guayaquil Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb Editing by Matthew Lewis )
