The low availability of US dollars has begun to affect sectors of the economy that need large quantities of that currency to conduct business. In the last few days, according to Diario Libre, there has not been a sufficient amount of dollars circulating in the formal exchange market. According to César de los Santos, president of the National Association of Vehicle Distribution Agencies (Anadive), the banks are limiting transactions to US$10,000 and US$20,000 for companies, whereas normally banks were permitting transactions of US$50,000 or more.
He said he was surprised that the dollar crunch was occurring now in February, instead of the usual dollar shortage problem during the busy Christmas season. De los Santos said it was important for the Central Bank to take the necessary measures and to inject more dollars into the economy.
Meanwhile the governor of the Central Bank, Héctor Valdez Albizu, assured that the Dominican economy did have enough dollars circulating and that more were coming. He denied that there was a shortage of the greenbacks and what was happening was that the banks were giving priority to their largest corporate clients.
He went on to say that if there were to be a problem, the Central Bank would help to resolve it. He said that his year the Central Bank had US$940 million more than last year with around US$6.8 billion available. In addition, with the bond issue more than US$1.8 billion would be coming into the country.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Al Momento
14 February 2018
