According to the Central Bank, the Dominican economy’s good performance during 2014 provides a firm starting point for dealing with risks in 2015, which it says could be reduced because of the positive effects of the fall in oil prices. The drop in oil prices is expected to result in savings in hard currency of between $800,000,000 and $1.2 billion dollars in 2015.
During a press conference held on Wednesday 7 January 2015, Central Bank governor Hector Valdez Albizu unveiled preliminary figures on the performance of the economy during 2014. The achievements include a growth rate of 7.1%, which he described as “the highest growth in Latin America, surpassing the regional average of 1.1% by six percentage points.”
This growth was accompanied by an inflation rate of 1.58%, “the lowest in the last 30 years,” according to financial analyst Alejandro Fernandez, author of the Argentarium column published in Diario Libre.
The Central Bank says that all sectors grew at rates ranging from 4.7% to as much as 20.9%. Valdez stressed that the tourist sector grew by 7.9%, attracting 5,140,654 tourists to the country, 9.6% more than in 2013.
According to Valdez, capital flight is not a major issue for the Dominican Republic, because “the country does not have an organized capital market” and thus would be less affected if the United States Federal Reserve (FED) were to raise its prime rate from the 0.25% it has maintained for the last few years.
“We are ready for whatever happens and we are internalizing the changes,” stated Valdez Albizu. He believes that the FED will not make any significant increases until mid-2015, and when that does happen, “it will not be a very big change.”
http://www.bancentral.gov.do/notas_bc/2015/01/07/592/gobernador-valdez-albizu-informa-economa-creci-71-en-2014