2003 – Page 303

The Central Bank will pay the Savings and Loan Association?s interest at the rate of 5 percent per month for deposits of their legal reserves, according to the new measures of the Monetary Board. Sub-paragraph B of Measure 2 established by the Monetary Board last Friday says that the S & Ls will gradually convert …

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The financial houses of Bear, Stearns & Co. and Standard New York Securities have issued reports on recent economic developments in the Dominican Republic. The country is of interest to the US firms because of the US$500-million (October 2001) and US$600-million (January 2003) sovereign bond placements made by the Dominican government. To follow the reports, …

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Congressional leaders have asked President Hipolito Mejia to send the appropriate legislation to Congress to obtain the required approval of the Monetary Board measures announced earlier this week. Andres Bautista, the president of the Senate, and Jose Tomas Perez, the spokesman for the PLD party, asked the President to be as transparent as possible regarding …

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Alejandro Grullon of the Grupo Financiero Popular and Jose Leon of the Leon Jimenez Group (Presidente beer) both favor the intervention of the International Monetary Fund in the current economic crisis of the Dominican Republic, as reported in Diario Libre. Both also voiced their hope that the public would give the President?s latest measures a …

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The head of the CONEP has called for a meeting of the commission that will follow-up the Pact for Stability and Economic Development to take place next week. According to El Caribe, the purpose of the meeting, to be convened by Finance Minister Jose Lois Malkun, is to analyze the current situation and its effects …

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The heretofore unknown Mona Ayoub, a multimillionaire of Lebanese extraction and the reported widow of a fabulously wealthy Saudi, hosted an exclusive dinner aboard a yacht for President Mejia and a very small group of guests, which included the US and French ambassadors. Few journalists had access to the event, whose high security measures required …

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This Friday, Cogentrix, the electrical power generator in San Pedro de Macoris, will receive a check for US$12 million as a down payment on the debt that is owed by the government, estimated at upwards of US$30-million. According to the economy section of El Caribe newspaper, Cogentrix will activate one of its 100-megawatt units, which …

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In stories carried in the Listin Diario and the Diario Libre, a US Federal District court awarded two narcotics agents US$1.5 million each for violation of their rights. According to the court, agents John McLaughlin and Charles Micewski said that they had discovered a drug trafficking ring that operated in Philadelphia and New York City, …

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The Supreme Court of Justice will have the last word. But Attorney General Victor Manuel Cespedes Martinez says he favors the maintaining of the correctional grading of the Pedro Julio (Pepe) Goico case for a RD$40 million credit card fraud. Baninter issued the card in the name of Goico to cover expenses of President Hipolito …

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Monsignor Timothy Broglio, Apostolic Nuncio of His Holiness the Pope and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, spoke up for peace yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Foreign Relations Minister Hugo Tolentino Dipp was accompanied at the podium by First Lady Rosa Gomez de Mejia. Monsignor Broglio urged that peaceful solutions be found to the …

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