For 2013, the government took on US$4.992 billion worth of loans for financing new public investment projects, as well as for supporting other projects already underway, according to a report published by CREES and released by Diario Libre today, Wednesday 5 June.
The new loans will increase the country’s external debt with multilateral financial agencies, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB). Between 2009 and April of this year, according to data from the Public Credit General Department (DGCP), the external debt taken on from multilateral agencies increased by US$1.434 billion, going from US$2.861 billion to US$4.296 billion, while the bilateral debt went from US$3.842 billion to US$5.939 billion, for an increase of US$2.097 billion. Taking into account the DGCP information, the external debt as of April of this year is around is around US$12.972 billion
At this rate, and according to a report by Ernesto Selman from the Regional Center for Sustainable Economic Strategies (CREES), the Dominican Republic could be en route to unsustainable public debt in the future if they do not reverse the current policy. “The Dominican public debt has increased noticeably since the beginning of this millennium. On the one hand, the recent increase in the public debt is a result of major fiscal deficits, principally during the last five years; this debt corresponds, essentially, to the central government,” they claimed. The researcher warns that if the current fiscal policy is maintained, the Dominican state will require debt issuance for some US$4.3 billion a year on average in order to finance the fiscal deficit and service old debts.
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2013/06/05/i386864_desarrollo-cuesta-estado-millones-dolares-deuda.html