Dominican economy grew 5.6% in August

Santo Domingo – The activities with the highest growth in August were: financial intermediation (8.7%), mining (8.5%), free zones (8.1%) and construction (6.9%).

The Dominican economy grew 5.6 % in August, accumulating an average growth of 5.1 % in January-August of this year.

The activities that drove growth in August were financial intermediation (8.7%), mining (8.5%), free zone manufacturing (8.1%), construction (6.9%), local manufacturing (6.8%), commerce (6.2%) and transportation (6.0%), according to the monthly economic activity indicator (IMAE), registered by the Central Bank.

Meanwhile, the growth in January-August 2024 is due to the performance of activities such as construction (4.9 %) and free trade zone manufacturing (6.6 %), highlighting those exports under this regime amounted to US$5,691.4 million in the referred period.

Likewise, service activities as a whole showed an accumulated increase of 5.4% with respect to the same period of the previous year, among which the following stand out: hotels, bars and restaurants (7.1%), transportation and storage (5.9%), real estate and rental activities (5.8%) and communications (5.3%).
The Central Bank explained in a statement that this behavior has taken place in an environment of price stability in which inflation has remained this year in the lower part of the mint range of 4.0 % ± 1.0 % as a result of the monetary and fiscal policies implemented.

The entity highlighted that in August mining grew 8.5 %, supported by the increase in gold production in the main gold deposit of the country. This sector had a decrease of 8.9% in the January-August period of this year compared to 2023.

Construction grew 6.9 % in the referred month, which is reflected in the increase of sales volumes of the main inputs used in this sector.

Meanwhile, the financial intermediation activity presented an inter-annual increase of 8.1 % in January-August, influenced by the 15.2 % expansion of credit granted to the private sector in local currency, equivalent to an additional RD$232,425.2 million with respect to August of the previous year.

The Central Bank also highlighted that the expansion of the IMAE in January-August places the Dominican Republic as the economy with the highest inter-annual increase with respect to its peers in Latin America, according to the latest information available to date published by the countries.