Central Bank authorities and AIRD executives during a meeting.
During a meeting with AIRD executives, Central Bank Governor affirms the country’s attractiveness due to its resilience and certainty regarding the economy’s performance.
The governor of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD), Héctor Valdez Albizu, reported that there is a growing interest on the part of international corporations and investors in the Dominican Republic, ‘attracted by our resilience, the certainty about the performance of the economy and the possibilities of yield for their investments.’
Valdez Albizu spoke at a meeting with the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD), where the president of this entity, Julio Virgilio Brache, praised the measures taken by the Central Bank since the outbreak of the pandemic until today, ‘thanks to which an enviable economic stability has been achieved in the region.’
Valdez Albizu highlighted the stability of the exchange rate, considering that the accumulated appreciation as of December 30, 2022, was 2.0 %. In addition, international reserves reached a historical figure at the end of last year of US$14,440.6 million, equivalent to 5.6 months of imports and 12.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
He expressed his optimism about the prospects for the Dominican economy in 2023, noting that ‘the result of 4.9% economic growth in 2022 in the context of a delicate international situation like the current one, just out of a global crisis caused by covid-19, and with adverse atmospheric phenomena that affected agriculture, can be considered a success’.
He also referred to the forecasts of the BCRD for 2023, following the estimates of international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), that the growth of the Dominican economy would reach a figure of around 4.5 percent.
He also referred to the Central Bank’s forecasts regarding inflation, which ‘we think will converge this year within the target range of 4+/-1 %, as the monetary policy transmission mechanism continues to operate and the conjunctural factors that have affected the volatile component of prices, mainly the effects of climatic phenomena and the drop in the prices of containers and commodities, dissipate’.
He highlighted that the inter-annual consumer price index (CPI) stood at the end of 2022 at 7.83%, 181 basis points lower from a peak of 9.64% in April of that year, being especially relevant to the underlying inflation data for price stability, which stood at 6.56% as of December, a figure that distinguishes the Dominican Republic in comparison with other countries in the region”.
He pointed out the importance of the fact that the monetary policy rate has remained at 8.50% per annum for about three months, indicating a pause at a time when almost all Latin American central banks have increased their rates, placing them significantly above pre-pandemic levels, as is the case of Argentina (75%), Brazil (13.75%), Colombia (12.75%), Uruguay (11.50%), Chile (11.25%), Mexico (10.50%), or Costa Rica (9%).