2003 – Page 64

The 2004 National Budget being debated in the Senate has assigned more funds to the Chamber of Deputies. These funds will come from the budgets of the ministries of Environment and the Interior & Armed Forces, according to the Diario Libre. According to Roberto Valenzuela of El Caribe, the senators and deputies began to work …

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According to the Diario Libre, the government does not discard the possibility of more modifications to the 2004 budget, although the total amount will not vary. Technical Secretary to the Presidency Carlos Despradel told reporters that the government may concede on the application of the suggested 30% tax on many items such as electrical appliances, …

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Pedro Silverio, the chief economist at the Economic Research Center for the Antilles (CENANTILLAS), told reporters for Hoy that the 2004 budget was devised using an exchange rate of RD$40 to US$1. This, in his opinion, shows that neither the government nor the IMF believe in the current RD$35-to-US$1 rate that is being ballyhooed in …

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According to Hoy newspaper, the US dollar is nowhere to be found. Although the exchange houses are buying the US currency at RD$34.80, or thereabouts, the sale of dollars is practically is at a virtual standstill. Rumors cited by Mario Mendez, the economic editor of Hoy, say that the burgeoning black market for dollars does …

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Edwin Ruiz, the reporter for the economic section of the Listin Diario, wrote on Sunday that the “boom” period for the Dominican economy has ended. Using a Dominican folk adage, Ruiz says that the coming years will be the “seven years of the thin cows.” In one of the most extensive analyses of the economic …

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Economist Frederic Emam-Zade continues to use satire as he looks at governmental economic policies. In today’s El Caribe, he uses the Christmas Carol as his story line. All the important people are in the National Palace, when suddenly there is a big gust of wind and all the lights go out. A voice speaks out, …

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El Caribe attributes the recent collapse of a discharge pipe, which now hangs over the streets below, to a lack of maintenance of the drainage system. The overpass system, inaugurated at the end of the former PLD government in 2000, was built at a cost of RD$649 million (and an exchange rate of RD$17 to …

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The new president of the Dominican Olympic Committee, Luisin Mejia, says that the foremost concern of the DOC is the organization and staging of the Monte Plata 2004 National Games. The previous priority of the DOC was the celebration of the Pan Am Games. The celebration of the Monte Plata Games requires million-peso installations to …

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DR1 Daily News will be taking several days off for the Christmas and New Year holidays. The news will not be updated on 24, 25 and 26 December on occasion of the Christmas holiday celebrations. The news over the holidays will be compiled for a special update on Monday, 29 December. The daily news service …

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The Mejia government has 835 inmates on its Christmas pardon list, all of whom were placed there by the Attorney General’s office on recommendations from its Pardons Commission. This represents the greatest number of inmates to be simultaneously pardoned by the government since this administration instated the practice of pardoning large groups of convicts. The …

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