In the first eleven months of 2023, remittances from all over the world have reached the Dominican Republic at high levels. So far, in 2023, remittances have added up to US$9.2 billion and are expected to go over the US$10 billion mark by the year’s end
In November, some US$788 million were received, a slight increase over the previous year.
Since the United States is the origin of almost 85% of all this money, it is interesting that unemployment figures for the US are just not reaching pre-pandemic levels and that Hispanic unemployment rates have also come down over the past year. This is particularly to be seen in the service sector where most Hispanics, particularly Dominicans, are employed.
The largest proportion of the money sent from overseas goes to people in urban areas. Residents in the country’s main metropolitan areas receive most of the remittances. Those living in the National District received 36%. Those living in the adjacent province of Santo Domingo got 13.2%. Those in Santiago received 9.4%.
The Central Bank points out that remittances, injections of direct foreign investment and tourism receipts have been impressive this year. Tourism is expected to hit US$10 billion, DFI will near US$5 billion. As a result, the Dominican peso only fell by 1.3% to the US dollar year to year.
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, the source of all of these numbers, says that hard currency reserves have topped the US$15 billion mark and the Dominican Republic has sufficient money to purchase imports for up to 5.6 months, which is within the parameters set forth by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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Bancentral
18 December 2023