The president of the Dominican Association of Free Zones (Adozona), Arturo Peguero disputed the reported 3.5% growth for the free zone sector posted by the Central Bank for the first quarter of the year. He said the bank has not revealed the details that support the growth. He says this is hard to believe when 36 free zone industries have closed, with a loss of 18,000 jobs, and the value of apparel exports has not increased. As reported in Diario Libre, he said that the depreciation of the peso caused a temporary expansion of the free zones in the first half of last year, with growth being around 3% from January to March 2004. But the contrary has occurred today. “We do not understand where this analysis of the Central Bank comes from,” he said.