Central Bank governor Hector Valdez Albizu told reporters at a press conference that the Dominican economy showed a growth of 6.4% in the first quarter of 2018. This growth was favored by the push given by the monetary decisions that have been in place since the middle of last year, said Valdez Albizu.
Valdez Albizu said that the performance was better than expected and that the cyclical tendency “shows that the economy is expanding at about 6.3%, which lets the government think that we will finish this year better than we had programmed.” International agencies such as the IMF, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) had all calculated that the Dominican economy would grow at about 5.5% in 2018.
The sectors that registered the best growth during the first quarter were farming at 6.1%, mining at 4.2%, local manufacturing at 6.9%, construction up by 9.3% and commerce up by 8.2% during this period.
The Central Bank also reported that from January to March 2018, accumulated inflation was 0.55%, and year-on-year inflation (March 2018 / March 2017) was 3.91%, within the target range of the Central Bank Monetary Program. The Current Account showed a surplus of US$183.7 million. International Reserves are at a historic high, reaching US$7.57 at the end of the first quarter of the year, equivalent to 4.6 months of imports.
An editorial in Diario Libre on 3 May 2018, nevertheless, wonders where the high growth is going. Editor writer Ines Aizpun observes that the jobs in the formal sector are not being created.
“How can the economy grow so much if the number of formal jobs does not? Young people who graduate from universities do not find work neither do those older than 40 or 45 and who have had the misfortune of being disengaged, one of those neologisms of personnel departments with which they try to disguise life. Those who do not have training do not find work, but neither those who return from abroad with a master’s degree and two or three languages. And if they find it, the job does not come with the salary they expected after the effort,” writes Aizpun.
Read more in Spanish:
Banco Central
Diario Libre
3 May 2018
