Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Thursday 16 January, Central Bank governor Hector Valdez Albizu announced that the Dominican economy had grown by 4.1% in 2013. Valdez Albizu said that all the actual figures are better than the International Monetary Fund estimates for the Dominican Republic. He said that inflation was 3.88%, which was well below the 5% estimated by the IMF. Valdez said that private credit was up 3.2 times. He said growth in the last quarter of the year was 7.2%. He forecast growth of 5-5.5% for 2014. He said that sectors influencing the growth of the Gross Domestic Product were farming that grew 7.8, from October to December, mining 114.1%, and construction 19.7%. Manufacturing and industrial free zones were up 3.4%, financial institutions 10.6%, and hotels, bars and restaurants 8.5%.
At year-end the tourism sector (hotels, bars and restaurants) closed with a 6.3% increase, farming with 4.4%, free zones 2.5% and construction 7.3%.
The CB Governor said that expectations are that the exchange rate would remain stable in 2014 and that banking credit increased by RD$84 billion compared to last year.
On the downside, unemployment was up in 2013. The Central Bank says that it is now at 15%, up from 14.3% registered for 2012. The Central Bank estimates that almost 70,000 new jobs were created, in many cases because informal businesses have formalized their operations.