In the monthly indicator of economic activity (IMAE) in the month of April, an interannual expansion of 47.1% was registered, according to the preliminary figures offered yesterday by the governor of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD), Héctor Valdez Albizu, who described this growth as an unprecedented result, which not only compensated for the 29.8% drop observed in April 2020 but also exceeded the level of the same month of 2019, which was a year without a pandemic.
Likewise, Valdez Albizu considered that the latest restrictive measures taken by the Government to control the outbreak of covid 19 will not affect the growth projections for the coming months, due to the strong fundamentals of the Dominican economy.
The BCRD governor stated that in order to measure this recovery, “a normalized index must be considered at 100.0 in April 2019, which with the pandemic fell 29.8%, going to 70.2 in April 2020 and now in April 2021 it stands at 103.3, for an interannual variation of 47.1% in April 2021 ”.
He specified that “this result does not constitute a simple rebound due to the statistical effect of the comparison base, but rather shows a reactivation that has exceeded pre-pandemic levels, increasing by 3.3% compared to April 2019.”
He indicated that the notable advances in the vaccination process and the better performance of the world economy and tourism would contribute to accelerating the process of economic reactivation. This would allow a conservative update of the projection of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the end of the year in the range of 7.0% to 8.0%.
The recorded performance has been supported by the impulse of the fiscal and monetary policy measures implemented as of March 2020 to alleviate the adverse effects of the health crisis on the economy. As a whole, this has been decisive in boosting economic activities and domestic demand, that is consumption and investment.
In addition, the positive impact that the distribution of vaccines against covid-19 has had throughout the national territory within the framework of the National Vaccination Plan.
Remittances and exports. Remittances and exports from free zones continue with significant dynamism, with the growth of 130.6% and 108.1%, respectively.
While imports increased 64.9% in total, non-oil imports rose 54.0%, which is in line with the accelerated recovery of domestic demand.
Bookings. The increase in the flow of foreign currency has allowed the accumulation of international reserves, which reached US$12,306 million as of May 24, equivalent to 7.4 months of imports and 14.7% of GDP.
International projections. Valdez Albizu highlighted that Bank of America shared a report with its most recent growth projection for the Dominican Republic in 2021, increasing from 7.9% to 10.0%, which indicates that investment fund analysts are forecasting a faster recovery than contemplated at the beginning of the year.
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Activities
Among the economic activities that stand out for their notable positive impact in April 2021 are:
construction (566.9%), hotels, bars and restaurants (140.7%), free zones (82.6%), mining (60.6%), other services (48.8%), transportation and storage (45.1%), local manufacturing (34.4%) and commerce (22.7%), communications (5.7%), energy and water (5.5%), financial services (4.9%), among others.
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