Expect traffic in cities to get worse as the Medina administration starts paying the Christmas wage today, Friday 5 December 2014, and city stores are advertising sales to attract consumers early in the Christmas shopping season.
The Medina administration announced that it would be disbursing RD$9.9 billion in extra wages to 440,000 government employees and public sector retirees from 5-10 December. This number does not include employees of decentralized government entities and municipalities. It does include military and Police agents who will be the first to receive the Christmas wage, followed by employees of the Education and Public Health ministries, the largest public sector employers.
Meanwhile, the Municipality of Santo Domingo East announced that it paid RD$29 million in Christmas wages to its employees on Thursday 4 December. The Municipality under mayor Juan de los Santos prides itself in its financial management that includes budgeting for the Christmas wage and not having to appeal to the government for loans at year’s end due to overspending during the year as is usual for many city governments.
Businesses are happy. Ernesto Martinez of the National Organization of Shopping Malls (ONEC) said that Black Friday sales were better than last year as shoppers made the most of the shopping day deals. He said that it had kick-started the holiday shopping season. He expects sells to rev up again with the extra cash in circulation.
http://www.diariolibre.com/economia/2014/12/05/i912791_gobierno-confirma-que-hoy-inicia-pago-regala-los-empleados-pblicos.html