The director of the National Budget, Luis Ernesto Perez Cuevas, said the 2002 budget will be about the same as this year’s. He said increases, if any, may be allotted to Education and Public Health. He spoke of the overestimation of revenues in the 2001 budget, which has resulted in a deficit. When the funds fell short, construction projects suffered as the revenues had already been allotted to payrolls. The budget had been set at RD$65 billion, including 5% from foreign sources. Revenues are estimated to end the year at RD$58 billion. Perez Cuevas speaks of a budget of around RD$61.4 billion for next year. He said that a 6.5% growth in the economy had been forecast for this year with 7.5% inflation. In the first half of the year, official stats show the country only grew 0.1% and inflation was 2.5%. Thus, he said gross domestic product (GDP) was up 2.6%, much less than expected. Perez Cuevas told El Siglo newspaper that money from the sovereign bonds will be used for the priority construction projects. He said he is optimistic that the government will be able to issue the bonds in the next two or three weeks.
