The Dominican Republic public debt burden is well below average by Caribbean and Central American standards, according to the Regional Economic Outlook published in October 2018 by the International Monetary Fund. The report says that with the exception of Haiti, the debt to GDP burden of other Caribbean nations is much higher than the Dominican Republic.
The 2017 debt to GDP ratio of most of the Caribbean and Central American nations as reported by the IMF in its October 2018 “Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean,” report reveals that Barbados has the highest debt to GDP burden in the region, with 157.3% of GDP. The Dominican Republic is listed with 37.2% of GDP. The regional countries listed are:
Central America:
Belize 99%
El Salvador 67.9%
Costa Rica 48.9%
Honduras 39.5%
Panama 37.8%
Nicaragua 33.3%
Guatemala 24.7%
Caribbean:
Barbados 157.3%
Jamaica 101.0%
Antigua & Barbuda 86.8%
Aruba 86%
St. Vincent & Grenadines 73.8%
St. Lucia 70.7%
Grenada 70.4%
St. Kitts & Nevis 62.9%
The Bahamas 54.6%
Dominica 82.7%
Trinidad & Tobago 41.8%
Dominican Republic 37.2%
Haiti 31.1%
The same report states that despite the overall slowdown in the region, growth in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador has accelerated since the start of the year to above potential, supported by persistently robust inflows of remittances and, in the case of the Dominican Republic, the monetary easing in mid-2017.
The Medina administration has added the most debt to the country’s public debt over the past six years in government. Just last week, the government announced it would be adding US$600 million in a loan from the China Export-Import Bank and another US$400 million loan from the IDB to the national foreign debt.
Diario Libre reports that from January to September 2018 the government has paid US$3.5 billion in principal and interests on the nonfinancial public sector loan. For the same period in 2017, the Medina administration paid US$3.2 billion.
El Dinero reports that in the past five years the government has doubled the amount paid for interest payments on the foreign debt, while contributing less to paying principal. From 2013 to 2017, the net increase in interest payment service of the foreign debt was US$511.4 million or 106% more. The Medina government paid US$991.7 million in interest payments, compared to the previous US$480.3 million.
12 November 2018
