Former President Leonel Fernandez says that the Medina administration needs to apply a new taxation increase urgently in order to reduce the current fiscal deficit. Speaking during a panel discussion organized by his think-tank Funglode, Fernandez said that the economy is stable and pointed to the fact that there has not been a depreciation of the peso. “The exchange rate has not changed, and inflation has not taken off. All remains stable and growing at a faster pace than the economies of Latin America,” he said.
Fernandez again blamed the fiscal deficit on the 2003 banking crisis that he inherited when he took office in 2004. He also attributed the large fiscal deficit that the Medina administration has inherited to the high electricity and fuel subsidy accumulated by the government.
Referring to the government deficit, he said: “And that comes from the crisis of the PRD in 2003, that the Central Government will have to pay some 96 billion pesos. As reported in Listin Diario he quantified the deficit includes $40 billion in electricity subsidy, RD$50 million inherited from the PRD government and RD$6 billion for fuel subsidies. The former President was speaking at a workshop on Bi-Regional Relations Between Europe – Latin America and the Caribbean, Prospects and Opportunities, organized by the European Union, Institut des Ameriques and Funglode.
www.listindiario.com.do/la-republica/2012/10/12/250742/Fernandez-defiende-su-gestion-y-atribuye-deficit-economico-actual-al-PRD