Central Bank governor, Héctor Valdez Albizu, reported that the average year-on-year growth is 5.4% during the period January-September 2022.
Following the mass celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Central Bank, Valdez Albizu made several announcements regarding economic activity.
Valdez Albizu announced that at the end of September the monthly economic activity indicator (IMAE) registered a year-on-year variation of 4.8% for that month.
This increase in turn reflects an average 5.4% growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) in January-September 2022, compared to the same period last year.
Regarding exports, he revealed that, during the first nine months of the year, exports amounted to a total of 10,543.3 million dollars, meaning a 14.2% year-on-year growth.
He went on to say that foreign exchange earnings have helped stabilize the exchange rate and that this in turn is mirrored in a 7% cumulative appreciation of the Peso at the end of September.
Meanwhile international reserves remain close to US $ 14,000 million, equivalent to 12.3% of GDP.
The homily was given by Monsignor Cecilio Berzosa on the anniversary of the institution, who thanked the authorities and highlighted their work.
GDP and Tourism
The governor of the Central Bank highlighted a “notable incidence” of services as a whole in the sectoral performance of GDP in the period in question, which accounts for approximately 60% of the economy, mentioning hotels, bars and restaurants that have had a 28.9% performance rate.
Valdez Albizu explained that “the hotel, bar and restaurant sector has had the one with the greatest impacts on GDP performance in the first nine months of 2022, accounting for approximately a third of its total expansion in that period, showing a relative variation of 28.9% in terms of real value added”.
He also pointed out that ‘this year has been extraordinary for the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic, exceeding recovery expectations after the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict for international tourism’.
The governor stressed that “there was an unprecedented flow in the arrival of non-resident passengers, accumulating 5.3 million visitors in nine months, according to figures released by the Ministry of Tourism, that is, 6.5% and 6.9% more non-resident visitors than in 2018 and 2019, respectively. “
In this regard, Valdez Albizu indicated that “despite the adversities that the tourism industry has faced worldwide in the current international situation, the Dominican Republic remains the leading destination in terms of tourist arrivals in the Caribbean Island region and Central America.”
Monetary policy
In his speech, he also said that the policies implemented to face the pandemic and its aftermath “prevented a collapse of the economy,”
“As you will remember, in this scenario, the Central Bank proactively supported the Monetary Board, reducing the monetary policy rate (MPR) to its historical minimum of 3.00%, channeling resources amounting to more than RD $ 215,000 million to companies and households, through financial intermediation entities, “he said.
As a result of the right mix of monetary and fiscal policies “the economy was able to recover faster than anticipated.”
In addition, he emphasized the monetary policy’s fight against inflation, which came about in coordination with the Government’s fiscal policy, mainly through fuel subsidies and electricity tariffs, as well as initiatives to lower production costs in agriculture.
“The effectiveness of these measures has resulted in the downward trend recorded in year-on-year inflation in recent months, standing at 8.63% in September meaning a reduction of 100 basis points compared to the 9.64% maximum reached in April of this year,” he said.
He also recalled that inflation was 0.29% in September 2022, after 0.21% in August, variations that mirror a significant moderation with respect to the previous 26 months in which monthly inflation averaged 0.78%.
In his presentation, the president of the Monetary Board stressed that, when analyzing the data of 18 Latin American economies, it is evident that the year-on-year inflation rate of the Dominican Republic is lower than that of eleven countries in the region at the end of September 2002.
Source:
Listín Diario
