What is the Dominican banking system good for? Mainly for lending money to traders, for buying housing, and for consumption. As of 17 June 2014, these three sectors absorbed 65.1% of the credit channeled by the country’s financial institutions. In contrast, the manufacturing industry and agriculture, forestry and fishing only received 10.8% of the loans, according to the reconciled statistics the Central Bank published on the monetary and financial system. The low percentage of bank credits that industry and agriculture receives contrasts notably with its major contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, and with its job creation capacity. This contribution, although it has been falling over the years, was 7.6% for farming, and 25.8% for local manufacturing in 2013. All told, together they represented 33.4% of the GDP. In addition, both sectors contributed 21.2% of the formal jobs and the 23.9% that were generated by the entire Dominican economy in both the formal and informal sectors.
In her statement to the General Senate Commission for DR-CAFTA, Dominican Republic Industrial Association (AIRD) president Ligia Bonetti reported that the industrial sector contributed 35% of the tax income, which represented more than a quarter of the Dominican economy, but that it receives “barely” 7% of the total credit portfolio of the country’s banks. “Thanks to our banking regulations, it is a thousand times easier to obtain a loan for a vehicle than to acquire machinery,” she stated.