- The Central Bank trusts that the liquidity program will facilitate a “gradual economic recovery.”
In the first seven months of this year, the Dominican economy showed a year-on-year growth of 2.4%, which is 2.6 percentage points less than the 5.0% expansion recorded from January to July 2024, according to data from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD).
According to preliminary figures from the Monthly Economic Activity Indicator (IMAE), the economy expanded by 2.9% year-on-year in July, higher than the 1.1% year-on-year variation in June. This was supported by better performance in sectors such as mining, free zones, construction, and services.
Within the services sector, notable activities include financial services, hotels, bars and restaurants, energy and water, and transportation and storage.
As previously evidenced, the Dominican economy has demonstrated resilience in adverse scenarios, emphasized the monetary authority in a press release. It also highlighted that nearly 60% of the 81,000 million pesos allocated through the liquidity program approved by the Monetary Board two months ago has been executed; this amounts to 48,451 million pesos.
Thus, 32,000 million pesos remain available to continue supporting productive sectors for the rest of the year.
Mining shows a 21% variation
Analyzing the IMAE result for July 2025, positive year-on-year variations are observed in most economic activities.
Mining experienced a 21.0% year-on-year variation in July, due to increased extraction volumes of gold and silver during that month, bringing the accumulated growth of this activity to 5.1% from January to July.
Within the industrial sector, the performance of free zone manufacturing stands out, which recorded a 7.1% year-on-year increase in July 2025. This growth is influenced by external demand for goods produced under this regime.
In this context, exports increased by 5.0% in that month, totaling $805.8 million, accumulating $5,057.8 million in the period from January to July.
Arrival of South Americans boosts hotels, bars, and restaurants
Regarding the added value of hotels, bars, and restaurants, this activity showed a 4.4% year-on-year variation in July 2025, mainly due to the arrival of non-resident passengers, which grew by 6.5% in July.
This performance is largely attributed to the increase in air traffic of non-resident foreigners from South America, due to measures implemented by the Ministry of Tourism to promote tourism and strengthen connectivity, aiming to increase visitors from non-traditional destinations.
Financial intermediation and construction sector
Financial intermediation activity grew by 6.3% year-on-year in July, influenced by a 10.3% expansion in credit to the private sector in local and foreign currency, amounting to an additional 224 billion pesos compared to July 2024.
In July, the construction sector showed a 3.8% year-on-year variation, improving its performance from the accumulated contraction of 2.3% observed from January to June.
This behavior is reflected in the local sales volumes of key inputs for infrastructure projects, especially cement and rebar, which have increased compared to July 2024.
“If this momentum continues and external uncertainties gradually dissipate, a reactivation of investment schedules in private sector projects is expected, which, combined with increased capital expenditure, would help solidify the sector’s recovery,” the BCRD stated.
The monetary authority notes that the recent liquidity program, along with a positive external account performance, has created “a conducive environment for a gradual economic recovery.”
“The deployment of pending legal reserve resources released by the Central Bank and advances in the monetary policy transmission mechanism will be key to supporting private credit expansion and lowering interest rates. This, coupled with greater capital expenditure execution in the remaining part of the year, would boost productive sectors and contribute to economic growth,” it concluded.
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