PLD warns basic food basket now triples average family income

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), through its agricultural secretary Adriano Sánchez Roa, denounced that the monthly cost of the basic food basket in the Dominican Republic has reached RD$76,190.07—more than three times the average monthly income of salaried families, which stands at just RD$22,122.70. He warned that this gap reflects a serious decline in purchasing power and a deepening of poverty, especially among low-income and middle-class households.

Sánchez Roa criticized the Central Bank’s methodology for calculating living costs, arguing that it distorts reality by lowering the quantity and quality of the goods it considers. He detailed sharp price increases between August 2020 and June 2025: rice more than doubled, beans and chicken nearly doubled, and cooking oil tripled. Other staple products, such as coffee, garlic, onions, sugar, and eggs, also saw substantial hikes.

Beyond food, he pointed to worsening conditions in public services and essential goods, including recurring blackouts, rising electricity and medicine costs, and a decline in public health coverage through SENASA.