Economist Pedro Silverio debates the recommendation of the IMF technicians that the Dominican Republic should increase taxes. He recalls that only two years ago the country carried out a fiscal reform that increased taxes by about 20%. ?For what good was that?? he posed. In answer to his own rhetoric, Silverio said, ?To pad the government payroll and spend on it over RD$5 billion more a year, while public constructions are financed mostly by borrowing abroad?.
Furthermore, he says that the demonetization efforts of the government have been mere announcements to the press and that the Central Bank has only removed RD$800 million from circulation. He writes in El Caribe today that more taxes, combined with restrictive monetary policy, would be a recipe for economic failure.