For the first time in 180 years, Ecuador repaid its $650 million foreign debt on time last Tuesday, reported Bloomberg Business.

Ecuador's president Rafael Correa, who caused the nation's default on their $3.2 billion overseas debt seven years ago, said on his Twitter account last Tuesday that the government would also meet public workers' salary payment for December without any problems.

This turn of events comes after Ecuador announced its pact with Houston-bast Schlumberger Ltd on Monday, where they were granted a 20-year contract to pump oil at one of its biggest oil fields in exchange for a $1 billion payment in the "coming days" by the oil services provider. Schlumberger Ltd then pledged to invest a total of $4.9 billion over the life of the contract, as stipulated in a statement. By honoring said bond payment for the year, Ecuador was able to restore the confidence of the investors and lowered future borrowing costs.

Despite being able to pay for the year's foreign debt, however, the government is still facing problems meeting payments to local contractors and is currently finding enough cash to repay their own overdue debts. The finance ministry said that it is planning on borrowing over $5.86 billion in 2016, just to cover the budgeted outlays.

Paying the nation's creditors posed a serious problem for the country, with Correa addressing the nation in his weekly speech, telling them that "You can't imagine all of the things that we've done."

Among the things that Correa has done, as noted in a separate report, this has included trimming government spendng, halting infrastructure investments and cutting fuel subsidies, winning him praises from the IMF for taking measures to lessen the country's debt. 

Ecuador first fell into a default in 1932, but the country was not able to rise from the ashes, as decades of internal revolt and weak govenrnance kept its leaders from paying their debts on time. By the time Correa took over, the nation was buried under six feet of debt, which played into Correa's decision to stop paying for foreign debt seven years ago. This earned him the distinction of being the most frequent defaulter in Latin America.

While Ecuador is moving on to the right track, with the country's legacy, Marco Santamaria, a money manager at Alliance Bernstein, said that the nation should still be cautious considering that the nation's dependence on oil may not be the best thing: global prices for crude oil has plunged 46 percent in the past year, and it is crude that accounts for about half of Ecuador's export revenue in 2014.

What do you think about the deal that the Ecuadoran president has made with a private American firm?