Imports fall US$404.8M in 2015; US still leads at US$7.2B

Santo Domingo.- The NationalStatistics Office (ONE) on Thursday said Dominican Republic imports fell US$404.8million in 2015 compared to 2014, when it posted a 3.7% growth

ONE preliminary figures revealimports of US$17.3 billion in 2015, or 2.3% lwer than the previous year.

“This reduction is justified bythe reduction of approximately US$1.4 billion in the amounts for imports of fuelsand mineral oils as well as products for distillation, a result of reductionsin international prices some of these products, representing 33.6%,” the agencysaid in a statement.

It said the main imported productwas crude oil in 2015, although the ONE notes a decline in value of 16.8%compared with 2014. “The category accounted for 10.6% of total imports with a valueof US$1.8 billion.

“This is followed by cars for personaluse in the amount of US$759.2 million, representing 4.4% of imports; theseshowed a decrease of 0.2% compared with 2014.”

The ONE listed drugs with a 26.6%.declineto around US$456.7 million, followed by fossil fuels at US$395.4 million, for a47.7% decrease.

It adds that despite that the US continuesto lead all countries on imports into the Dominican Republic during 2015 with 41.3%,or nearly US$7.2 billion, the figure is 1.6% less than in 2014.