Republic of Ecuador
República del Ecuador

CAPITAL: Quito

FLAG: The flag consists of three horizontal stripes, the yellow uppermost stripe being equal to the combined widths of the blue center stripe and the red lower stripe.

ANTHEM: Salve, O Patria (Hail, O Fatherland).

MONETARY UNIT: The sucre has been replaced by the U.S. dollar as the official currency as of March 2000 at a rate of 25,000 sucres for 1 U.S. dollar. The dollar ($) of 100 cents is a paper currency with a floating rate. There are coins of 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cents and 1 dollar, and notes of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollars. Although issuance of higher notes ceased in 1969, a limited number of notes of 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 dollars remain in circulation.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES: The metric system is the legal standard, but local and old Spanish units also are used.

HOLIDAYS: New Year's Day, 1 January; Epiphany, 6 January; Labor Day, 1 May; Battle of Pichincha, 24 May...