Central Bank says economic activity fell by -4.3% in Oct.

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Central Bank said economic activity fell by -4.3% in October, in relation to the same month of 2019, “reflecting a substantial improvement of 25.5 percentage points, that is, a contraction seven times less than the most critical point of the crisis observed in April (-29.8%).”

The fall in October, combined with the interannual variation rates of the real GDP in January-March (0.0%), April-June (-16.9%) and July-September (-7.2%), places the average growth of the economy in the period January-October 2020 at -7.7%, more favorable than the results of -8.5% and -8.1% accumulated at the end of the second and third quarters of the year, respectively.

It said it expects the trend towards recovery continues to accentuate in November and December, with even less negative rates, which would make it possible to project, based on available information, that the Dominican economy would be closing 2020 with a variation in real GDP of between – 6.7% and -6.8%.

“Another relevant aspect to highlight is that the weighted average of all economic activities, excluding hotels, bars and restaurants, shows an interannual variation of -0.7% in October, approaching more and more to the positive terrain,” says a document on its website.