Ecuador's national currency gets lifeline

The Central Bank in Ecuador has extended a deadline for the exchange of all local currency to the United States dollar.

The currency, the sucre, will now remain legal tender until June.

Last year Ecuador introduced the dollar in an attempt to halt a slide in the value of the sucre and spiralling inflation.

Only about ten-million dollars worth of sucres are thought to remain in circulation, mainly in rural areas.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service