A recent report prepared by the Chief Economist Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Bank focuses on the need to support entrepreneurship and micro and small businesses to boost jobs and growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.
According to the report, “Transformational Entrepreneurship for Jobs and Growth”, Latin America and the Caribbean regional growth rate is expected to edge up slightly—from 2.2% in 2024 to 2.3% in 2025—even as many individual economies face downward revisions in their projections. These adjustments reflect, in part, an external environment that offers limited support, shaped by a cooling global economy, falling commodity prices, and greater uncertainty. In this scenario, empowering entrepreneurs and the private sector is essential. They can help fuel needed rapid growth and job creation as central actors in economic progress.
The Dominican Republic is forecast to end 2025 with a 3.0% Real GDP growth rate after decades of posting growth rates closer to 5%. For this 2025, the DR with 3.0% is expected to fall behind the regional countries: Guyana (11.8%), Paraguay (4.2%), Guatemala (3.9%), Panama (3.9%), St. Lucia (3.9%), Grenada (3.8%), Costa Rica (3.6%), Honduras (3.6%), Peru (3.3%), Dominica (3.1%) and Nicaragua (3.1%).
The 2025 GDP growth rate drop for the Dominican Republic is relative. The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reports indicate the Dominican Republic has grown the double as other regional countries over the past decade.
ECLAC statistics reveal that the DR has maintained an average economic growth of 5.0% in the past decade, more than double the regional average and has reduced poverty by 18.2% and extreme poverty by 4.9%.
The Dominican Presidency highlighted that according to ECLAC statistics, the DR has the lowest Inequality Index (Gini) rate in Latin America (0.39 in 2023).
ECLAC findings are shared in the second edition of its Panorama of Productive Development Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean 2025 that will be released on Thursday, October 9, 2025, in Mexico City. ECLAC advances that there is the need to scale up and improve these policies to drive the productive transformation required for the region and escape the low-growth trap in which it is mired, but also sets forth specific ways to achieve it.
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Transformational Entrepreneurship for Jobs and Growth
N Digital
8 October 2025