The risk rating of the Dominican Republic has a positive outlook, according to an analysis by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.
Against a global backdrop marked by high volatility and restricted liquidity in financial markets, with high interest rates, a strong appreciation of the dollar and growing trade tensions, the Dominican Republic maintains the lowest country risk indicator in Latin America, prevailing among its peers as a safe investment destination, Diario Libre reports.
Over the years, the Dominican Republic has scored above average in areas such as political stability, economic health, social unrest and environmental factors that are taken into account by the risk rating agencies.
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The Central Bank has indicated in a recent release that as perceived by the Fitch Credit Rating Agency, the Dominican Republic is the only country in Central America with a positive outlook. The DR has attracted over the past four years more than US$4 billion a year in foreign investment. For 2025, the outlook is for the country to receive around US$4.7 billion in foreign direct investment.
This is in addition to the dynamism coming from remittances (US$10.75 billion in 2024), tourism (US$10.98 billion coming from the spending of 11.2 million visitors) and exports (which closed at US$12.93 billion, 7% more than in 2023) which, added to other income, totaled more than US$43 billion.
According to the Emerging Markets Bond Index of the company JP Morgan (known as EMBI, for its acronym in English), the country risk of the Dominican Republic was 530 basis points (bps) in March 2022, higher than the average risk of Latin America, of 460 basis points. From that moment on, both indexes began to improve.
However, while the Latin EMBI began to be perceived as riskier since April 2024, standing at 410 basis points in February 2025, that of the Dominican Republic improved to reach 200 basis points in this month, “its lowest historical level,” according to an analysis published by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD).
“This result shows how rating firms and international investors are recognizing the strong macroeconomic fundamentals of the Dominican economy, perceiving it as less risky than many countries in the region, even when some of them have investment grade,” the technical note issued by the monetary entity states. The Dominican Republic country risk, of 200 basis points, is lower than that of Colombia (316 bps), Mexico (301 bps) and Panama (277 bps), all with investment grade by at least one rating company.
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Central Bank
Diario Libre
25 February 2025