2003 – Page 87

The Washington Post published a 30 November update on how the Dominicans have suffered a reversal in fortune, going from being the Caribbean’s fiscal role model to a nation whose population is suffering from spiking inflation. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21569-2003Nov29.html

President Hipolito Mejia is being urged to heed the statement issued earlier this week by the Dominican Conference of the Episcopate (as reported in Thursday’s DR1 news) and withdraw his bid for re-election. The Catholic bishops’ call is being echoed in many quarters, including from within the President’s own party, the ruling PRD. Henry Mejia, …

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President Hipolito Mejia was unrepentant in his response to yesterday’s pastoral letter. He continued to blame external factors for the economic ills the country is experiencing, along with the government bail-out of this year’s major banking collapses. “Thanks to us 700,000 savers have their ‘chelitos’ (pennies),” Mejia said. In an address yesterday, Mejia focused on …

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President Hipolito Mejia will pay a visit to some of the areas most affected by last week’s flooding in the northeastern part of the country, adjacent to the frontier with Haiti and known as the ‘Linea Noroeste’. The President will be shown some of the damage and the emergency response work being carried out by …

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According to Central Bank Governor Jose Lois Malkum, the 2004 budget will comply with the International Monetary Fund’s stipulation of a guaranteed surplus of at least 1.5% of GDP and a systemic risk law will be approved. Malkum also justified the imposition of new taxes, such as the vastly unpopular surcharge on exports and the …

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Lawyers for the Central Bank and Banking Superintendence have registered their opposition to the application for bail made last week on behalf of accused Baninter executives Ramon Baez Figueroa and Marcos Baez Cocco, who have been in police custody since 14 May. The state legal team argued that bail would be illegal in this case, …

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Labor Minister Milton Ray Guevara announced that the new Social Security fund has surpassed the RD$1-billion mark, and that the government has honored its budgetary commitment to the fund, along with private employers and employees’ contributions. Guevara described the fund as the best way to ensure the improvement of public health. The new Social Security …

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The pharmaceutical industry association INFADOMI says that this week’s Decree 1079-03, which exonerates imported medicines and related items from taxes, will not have any significant impact on prices for the consumer. Importers will still have to pay the exchange rate commission, recently raised from 4.5% to 10%, and retailers and consumers will still be charged …

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The airport authorities have announced they will elevate the scrutiny of checked baggage at all airports, in order to prevent illegal transfers of undeclared foreign currency. The special airport security body CESA said yesterday that they would be redoubling their efforts to intercept such cargo. They cited the apparent increased traffic in illegal currency and …

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Bienvenido Alvarez Vega, writing for Hoy newspaper, examines the growing impoverishment of the Dominican people. “Poverty is not a new phenomenon, we have always been poor,” he says, in reference to the ever-growing struggle for many to get by, in some cases resulting in pauperization. The writer observes that the most basic services are increasingly …

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