Ecuador will not drop the U.S. dollar in order to face the global financial crisis, the Associated Press reports.

Economic Policy Minister Pedro Paez says $6.3 billion in a dollarization fund and another $2.5 billion deposited in local banks can be used to cushion the impact on Ecuador.

Paez says the crisis may hurt exports and threaten more than $15 billion in short-term investments that Ecuadoreans have abroad. Ecuador's primary export is oil.

Paez told Teleamazonas TV station Monday that Ecuador won't abandon the U.S. dollar, adopted in 2000 amid a crisis that devalued the now-defunct national currency.

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