Economic activity jumps 7.5% in April, paced by construction

Santo Domingo.-  Dominican Republic’s Central Bank on Mon. reported that the monthly economic activity indicator (IMAE) posted a 7.5% growth in April compared to the same month a year ago.

It said the increase was mainly from the growth in Construction (33.7%), Free Trade Zones (14.7% ), Financial Services (10.1%), Retail (9.1%), Health (9.0%), Transportation and Storage (8.8%), Local Manufacturing (7.1%), among others.

“It should be noted that the exploitation of mines and quarries is the only activity that presents a negative change in the month of April (-32.0%) in its real added value, which is essentially explained by maintenance processes of machinery and equipment in the plants of production,” the Central Bank said in an emailed statement.

It said result takes the economy’s accumulated growth to 6.7%, after having experienced an inter-annual variation of 6.4% in the January-March quarter, “which reflects the continuation of the momentum of the monetary easing measures adopted as of the month August, 2017,” it said.

The Central Bank says the performance ranks the Dominican economy among the leader of the Latin American region in terms of 2018 economic growth. “In terms of trend-cycle, the IMAE shows an annualized expansion of 6.6% at the end of April, which reflects that the economy continues to show growth above its potential.”