Diario Libre reports that lending rates for personal loans have zoomed in recent months, with short-term personal loan rates of 36% considered normal. Interest rates in the Dominican Republic fluctuate, so people who could have contracted loans last year at 20% now need to pay much higher rates. Some consumer loans are at 40%, and mortgage loans, outside of the loans and savings associations, are now at 32%. The newspaper attributes the greater interest rates to the governmental measures to restrain money in circulation to control the rising cost of the dollar.