Ecuador’s New Household Basket Now Tracks 98 Goods and Services

Ecuador’s official household-cost benchmark changed in July 2026. The former Canasta Familiar Básica was replaced by the Canasta Familiar Básica de Consumo (CFBC), which now contains 98 goods and services rather than 75.

The new July reference cost is USD 825.17 for a typical four-person household. The benchmark is designed to measure essential monthly goods and services, not to describe the actual spending of every household.

Where the basket is concentrated

The largest category is food and beverages at USD 355.27. Housing, services, and other items total USD 278.29. Together, those categories represent about 77% of the benchmark’s cost.

Other categories include clothing at USD 72.34, personal care and health at USD 70.44, education at USD 26.56, and cleaning and maintenance at USD 22.25.

The benchmark also includes USD 176.49 for rent, USD 33.43 for transport, USD 28.83 for basic services, and USD 39.55 for information and communication services. These are basket components, not a national rent or utility average.

The composition changed too

The update adds items such as yogurt, apples, urban taxi transport, postpaid mobile plans, residential internet, prepared dog food, sanitary pads, and garbage bags. It removes a family-sized soft drink, cashmere, cotton for shirts, shoe-repair services, football and cinema tickets, a newspaper, and filtered cigarettes.

INEC used results from the 2024–2025 National Urban and Rural Household Income and Expenditure Survey and referenced CEPAL guidelines for the new composition. The older basket had used a reference dating to November 1982.

What to watch

For business readers, the new basket changes the baseline used to discuss household purchasing power and category inflation. The immediate analytical question is not whether every household spends USD 825.17; it is how the composition changes the weight assigned to communications, transport, housing, food, and personal services.

For expat-facing businesses, the inclusion of internet, mobile service, taxi transport, and pet food also makes the benchmark more visibly connected to contemporary urban consumption.

Source: Primicias