The Governor of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, Hector Valdez Albizu, announced that the Dominican economy grew by 4% in the first semester of this year. He called it “a satisfactory growth,” although below what the country has been accustomed to.
Valdez Albizu, nevertheless, is optimistic that freeing up resources from the legal reserves of the banking system will spark up the economy that by this time last year had grown by 7.4%.
During a press conference to present the economic results of the first half of the year, the Central Bank governor mentioned that the sectors reporting the most growth were agriculture with 6.2%, mining with 3.7%, local industries at 2.3% and the industrial free zones with a 3.9% growth for the period.
Construction slowed by 2.7% in the first semester. Given the results in the construction sector, the Central Bank governor said that he had increased by RD$8.0 billion the ceiling of money freed from the bank’s reserve funds that can be aimed at the development of the real estate sector. He also said that in a meeting with President Danilo Medina they reached an agreement to hasten the release of those resources destined for construction in order to accelerate those projects that are underway.
On the international front, Valdez Albizu said that the Central Bank had repurchased US$324.1 million of Brady bonds so that the foreign debt of the Central Bank shows a clean slate. He explained the operation to the reporters and said that this represents US$65.4 million savings in the payment of those bonds that would have come due in 2024. Valdez Albizu said that gross international reserves are at US$6.5 billion as of June 2017.
Read more in Spanish:
Banco Central
Listin Diario
31 August 2017
