According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), economic growth for the Dominican Republic will slow down to 5.5% in 2019, after having had the highest growth in Latin America last year. On average, Latin America economic growth is expected to be only 2%.
The IMF report has been issued following the recent IMF mission visit to the country. It highlights the growth in the country in 2018 of 7% with only 1.2% inflation, leading to an increase in employment and a reduction in poverty.
The report states that the economic perspectives are favorable, but inflation has increased due to the rising prices of petroleum and food. In the Dominican Republic domestic demand could be stronger than expected due to the solid increase in income and the availability of credit.
However, the report stresses the need for critical structural reform, improvement in the business climate and ease of doing business, and increased investment in infrastructure and human capital.
In the report, the IMF states that the robust economic performance had benefitted from a strengthening of policy frameworks, competitiveness, and the banking system over the past decade. To sustain this performance, however, reforms need a fresh push to address the remaining structural bottlenecks and propel the country towards faster income convergence to advanced country levels.
The IMF praised efforts to improve the business environment. Policy bottlenecks in trade and doing business are also being removed by the strong collaboration between the government and the private sector under the auspices of the National Competitiveness Council, states the document.
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IMF
26 March 2019