Dominican Republic taps US$200M to halt dollar’s surprising jump

Santo Domingo.- The Central Bank will start exchange market injecting between US$150 and US$200 million today Tuesday to halt a surprising jump in the dollar rate, now above RD$45.

Central banker Hector Valdez Albizu announced that in its last meeting the Monetary Board also approved a 2-point increase to the banks’ reserve requirements, which will roll back their liquidity by around RD$14.0 billion.

He aid the measure aims to reduce liquidity so no one can claim that the climb in the exchange rate results from increased demand from a glut of money.

In a press conference, Valdez called the rate’s behavior atypical because there was a record income from tourism (around US$5.6 billion) last year and around US$22.0 billion in general.

The official said other causes behind the inexplicable situation is that oil has been falling, which means there’s less pressure to the exchange market.