Frank Guerrero Prats, Governor of the Central Bank and Fernando Alvarez Bogaert, Minister of Finance, believe the year end fiscal deficit will be at most RD$1,000 million. Economists have said that at the present pace, tax collections will result in a RD$10,000 million fiscal deficit at year end. Guerrero said the forecast is for a 0.8% surplus of the Gross Domestic Product. He said one has to wait for the year’s end to determine the fiscal deficit. He commented that tax collections in January and February are traditionally slow. He said that year end projections cannot be made on the income of these two months. Guerrero estimated that tax collections at year end should be around RD$60,000 million. The National Budget is RD$60,000 million. The government has requested that the Congress approve several international loans to compensate for the fiscal deficit and enable the government to keep the present spending levels.
