Guillermo Perry, an economist for the World Bank, said yesterday that the Dominican Republic does not have enough hard-currency reserves to convert to a dollar-based economy. Speaking to reporters at the presentation of the document ?Closing the Gap in Education and Technology?, Perry said that the first thing that must be done is collect all the money in circulation in order to protect the financial system. ?The Dominican Republic does not have the conditions necessary to do this in the short term,? said the economist. Perry added that over the longer term, the DR would have to guarantee a high level of international reserves and a more solid financial system, and that the question of public expenditures was not a problem of taxes, but rather of spending, and requires better supervision of the financial system. When asked his opinion about the report on the local economy that was submitted to the International Monetary Fund by the economist Oscar Melhado, Perry said that while this was, indeed, a report from a technician, it was not an official IMF report. The IMF team will visit the Dominican Republic this week.