2003 – Page 68

Hoy newspaper leads with a warning from within the PRD ranks that the 2004 budget is in danger of becoming the subject of internal party wrangles. This would be at the expense of the country’s social and macro-economic development, said the Senate’s budget committee president, Manuel Emilio Ramirez Perez, and the PRD Senator for San …

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Standard & Poor’s ratings services said today it has lowered its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings for the Dominican Republic from B- to CCC. With its continued negative outlook, credit analyst Richard Francis says the DR faces a severe liquidity crisis. He explains: “There is a substantial risk that delays restarting its …

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Franco Uccelli, who follows the DR for the Bear Stearns brokerage firm, interprets the S&P downgrading in an update today. “For the Dominican Republic to avoid default in 2004, it needs to get the IMF program back on track (time frame: next three weeks) and keep it on track (time frame: next 12 months).” Uccelli …

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The peso continued its upward trend with latest reports valuing it at RD$35 to the US dollar, although dollars remain scarce in the currency exchange market. A comment on a morning radio program gave rise to rumors that Vimenca Bank was in danger of collapse. This report was dismissed outright by the Central Bank, whose …

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According to a report in Hoy newspaper’s economic section, the Spanish private company Union Fenosa is still waiting for the government to pay the US$15-million initial payment for the re-acquisition of power distribution companies EdeSur and EdeNorte, as was agreed in October. The government had presented Union Fenosa with a post-dated check, but this is …

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The Listin Diario reports that the Codetel has cut phone service to the Education Ministry, in view of a RD$20-million debt to the company. Julio Cordero, administrative chief at the ministry, says that they requested a payment from the budget office for RD$8 million to cover last year, but have not received any response. This …

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Although the festive season is fast approaching and with it the promise of the traditional political truces, in which political rivals lay down their weapons and submit to the spirit of the season, Vice President and Presidential hopeful Milagros Ortiz Bosch has made a blistering attack on President Hipolito Mejia. Ortiz Bosch told her supporters …

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The three PRD Presidential hopefuls who withdrew from the primary scheduled to have taken place this Sunday reaffirmed yesterday they will cast aside their personal ambitions and select one single candidate to challenge President Hipolito Mejia. They have tentatively agreed to take part in the re-scheduled convention, now set for 18 January. Milagros Ortiz Bosch, …

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The dean of the PUCMM university’s law school in Santo Domingo, Flavio Dario Espinal, writes today on El Caribe’s opinion page on how the ruling PRD party has structured its own kind of populism as a propagandistic answer to the economic crisis. For the government, this is about dividing society between “the powerful” and “the …

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The United States embassy has announced new requirements for those seeking entry visas to the US. As of Tuesday 16 December, applicants must go through a new procedure, and can expect to wait as long as 17 weeks for an appointment with a consular official. Prospective travelers are therefore advised to make their plans well …

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