Economist Ernesto Selman of the Regional Center for Sustainable Economic Strategies is forecasting that the Dominican Republic will make savings of around 36% on its fuel bill for 2015, or about US$1.29 billion. This is due to the 22.3% drop in fuel prices on the international markets. There was a 1.1% increase in purchases in 2015.
For 2016, he estimated a further decline of US$495 million in fuel imports.
Nevertheless, Selman says the decline in the fuel prices have meant lower tax collections for the government. The government has collected RD$1.59 billion less in the first nine months of the year.
He observes that while the government has budged RD$48.2 billion for 2016, it will only collect RD$40.35 billion, or around RD$7.85 billion less.
The Medina government has only passed on a trickle of its fuel savings to Dominican consumers, despite the hydrocarbon law that establishes that the global market price fluctuations should be reflected in the retail price.