In 2019, the national debt of the Dominican Republic reached US$35.9 billion, up US$3.78 billion in 2019 alone. According to the data from the Public Credit Agency, the Non-Financial Public Sector debt was US$35.94 billion. The year-to-year matchup shows that in 2018, the number was US$34.15 billion. This means that the DR owes at least 40.4% of every dollar accounted for in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is up from 37.6% of GDP in 2019. The numbers do not include the debt contracted by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.
The latest numbers for the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic are from September 2019, and they show that the Central Bank owed US$12.06 billion, at that moment equal to 13.6% of GDP. The part of the national debt owed to overseas entities is set at US$23.37 billion, and the remaining US$12.55 billion is owed to local financial institutions.
In the 2020 budget, the National Congress authorized a total debt increase of US$2.98 billion in foreign currency, while bond issues in local currency was set at RD$86.3 billion.
In January 2020 already, the government placed sovereign bonds worth US$2.5 billion, which means it has already used 83.7% of the amount authorized in the budget for foreign debt for this year.
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Diario Libre
18 February 2020