Crossword Genius

Country's financial district gets universal love, almost (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ecuador

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'country's' is the definition.
(Ecuador is an example)

'gets universal love almost' is the wordplay.
'gets universal' becomes 'ecu' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'love' becomes 'adore' (adoring is a kind of loving).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'adore' with its final letter taken away is 'ador'.
'ecu'+'ador'='ECUADOR'

'financial district' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ecuador that I've seen before include "South American country, capital Quito" , "Is Cora due out in South America?" , "Where panama hats are made" , "The state capital is Quito" , "S. American nation" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app