According to figures released by the Central Bank yesterday, Monday 19 May 2014, the Dominican Republic’s economy grew by 5.5%, based on the change in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2013. This compares to 7.3% in the last quarter of 2013.
Central Bank Governor Hector Valdez Albizu said that there has been positive growth in agriculture (6.2%), mining (35.3%), manufacturing (5.9%), construction (14.6%), energy and water (3.6%), commerce (3.6%), hotels, bars and restaurants (8.9%), transport (3.9%), financial services (14.6%), education (3.5%), health (5.9%) and other services (6.1%).
He highlighted that the growth in the construction sector was not only the result of private sector activity but also government investment in public projects, mainly schools.
He said that as a reflection of the growth in the first quarter of this year, government tax revenue was up 7.6%, and lending was up 13.8%.
Looking at the net employment statistics, during the period October 2013 to March 2014, there had been an increase of 72,003 net employees, which when added on to the 69,801 generated from October 2012 to October 2013 for a total of 141,804 net employees in the last 18 months.
Valdez Albizu went on to say that inflation was staying low at 1.10% during the first three months of the year, and in April was only 0.43% for a running 12-month figure of 3.49%, which was in line with the anticipated range of 4.5%?1.0% for 2014. This puts the DR in fourth place on the list of countries with the lowest levels of inflation in Latin America.
Moving on to the Balance of Payments there was an excellent result for the first quarter of 2014 with a positive balance of US$93.4 million, the first time since 2007 that the country has had a positive balance in the first quarter of the year. The result was due to a 5.5% increase in exports, mainly due to national exports (7.1%), which include gold at 39.7%, ports (8.0%) and cacao (47.6%) as well as the Free Zones (3.9%).
Imports were down by 0.3% mainly due to a lower amount for petroleum, some US$129.8 million over the previous year, representing a reduction of 0.3%.
www.diariolibre.com/economia/2014/05/19/i616671_banco-central-economa-creci-primer-trimestre-del.html
www.bancentral.gov.do/notas_bc/2014/05/19/487/banco-central-informa-que-la-economa-dominicana-crece-55-en-enero-marzo-2014-