A report published today in El Caribe highlights that manufacturing and farming are less important in the Gross Domestic Product of the Dominican Republic. The growth sectors are retail and services. The Dominican economy was based on money crops in 1970, and would evolve to depend on tourism and free zone exports in the 80s, and subsequently it felt the impact of the burgeoning telecommunications sector. Moreso, the report says that the size of the Dominican economy has multiplied by 16 over the past 40 years. The GDP increased from RD$123.4 billion in 1970 to RD$1,374 billion by 2013. In the meantime, the country went from being a rural nation until the 60s, to an urban country, where today 70% live in cities.
Meanwhile, in the past 10 years there has been an extraordinary increase in the trade balance deficit. This went from US$2.15 billion in 2003 to US$8.67 billion in 2012. Exports grew at an annual rate of 6.6%, from US$5.47 billion in 2003 to US$9.07 billion in 2012, but imports outpaced these with 10.94% growth, going from US$7.62 billion in 2003 to US$17.75 billion in 2012. The National Council of Business (Conep) says that for every export dollar, imports have grown 1.65 dollars.
While in 1970 the Dominican per capita was US$1,500, today it is at US$5,600. The Dominican economy is now at the middle level, which reduces the aid the country can receive from foreign governments and multilateral organizations. Economist Luis Manuel Piantini, Dominican representative to the World Trade Organization, said that multilateral organizations such as the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank need to use human development indicators, when granting international aid.