The government and the IMF are in the process of reviewing the ceilings on the trade balances set forth in the Letter of Intent, in order to bring them in line with the impact created by the recent rise in the price of oil. As reported in Listin Diario, the “flexibility” that the IMF will need to show will be set forth in the new Letter of Intent that will be discussed next October at a meeting of Dominican economic and financial authorities and members of the International Monetary Fund. The increase in oil prices has “messed up” the government’s numbers and even though there is no serious impact expected in the immediate future, the number one problem is the larger outflow of hard currency that has widened the financial gap in the balance of payments, estimated to be US$300 million. Even though the IMF may well consider loosening the ceilings that were agreed upon with the government, they will certainly keep a “close eye” on just how government spending behaves. According to some economists, the government plans to increase public expenditure next year.