President Luis Abinader congratulated his economic team for delivering better fiscal results than expected. In a press conference from the Presidential Palace, Abinader announced that the year ended with the deficit at 7.7% of Gross National Product, compared to the budgeted 9.4%. He highlighted this is well below the average statistics for the region. Abinader said the government had savings of RD$77 billion for being proactive in tax collections and government spending. “We have achieved the goal of more efficient and better quality spending,” he said.
Abinader said the economic numbers are good news. He said the increase in Customs Agency and Tax Agency collections reflect the gradual recovery of the economy. He said DGII collections are up 3.75% over what was budgeted in September 2020. He said the reduction in the deficit comes at a time when the government has fulfilled disbursements to key areas such as health, education and welfare programs to confront Covid-19 challenges.
There has been a recovery in manufacturing, free zones, farming and mining. The area with the biggest challenges still to be conquered is tourism, bars and restaurants. Hacienda Minister Jochi Vicente added that the construction sector with all its linkages in the economy is also recovering.
President Abinader said that the recovery has been of 0.2% of all sectors, minus the tourism, bars and restaurants sectors. Andres Marranzini of the National Hotel & Tourism Association would later reveal that while there had been expectations of attracting 400,000 tourists this year, only 300,000 came. Domestic travelers have been keeping hotels open. Marranzini attributed the falling short to the evolution of Covid-19 in Dominican source markets.
Meanwhile, President Abinader said foreign investment should reach US$2.6 billion, reflecting the trust of international investors in the Dominican economy. Minister of the Presidency Lizandro Macarrulla said that despite the pandemic crisis the last quarter indicators reveal that there will be robust growth in 2021.
President Abinader also highlighted the stability of the exchange rate in the last quarter 2020. He said the Central Bank has announced increases in net international reserves from US$6.7 billion to US$10.75 billion. He said this is a guarantee of the macroeconomic stability of the country. The reserves are sufficient to cover over seven months of imports, when the IMF recommends keeping reserves for three months.
Listen to the press conference
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6 January 2021