Central Bank governor Hector Valdez Albizu told the audience meeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil for the annual assembly of the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) that the Caribbean nation was expecting to see its GDP grow by 5.5% in 2006. He added that inflation is expected to be just 7.4%. He pointed out that the DR-CAFTA agreement with the United States presented the country with a new set of challenges for which the country would need the IDB to support actions to increase the level of competitiveness of Dominican industry. He added that the signing of the IMF Letter of Intent in 2005 meant “serious readjustments for the Dominican economy,” especially in the areas of public finance and in the banking sector. The highest ranking Dominican monetary official gave a brief review of the measures taken by the government, such as the reduction of inflation and interest rates, the increase by 134% of the international reserves, and the readjustments in the exchange rates. Valdez said that inflation, for example, went from 28.7% in 2004 to 7.4% in 2005 and that the government “expects even better numbers for 2006.”