Government remains frugal, despite mine contract windfall

Santo Domingo.- Despite the extra funds the government will get from the renegotiated Barrick Gold Corp. mining contract, it still needs one more year to cut the fiscal deficit, so austerity measures will continue to reduce public debt.

Budget director Luis Reyes noted however that government spending will be more flexible, because they need to spur the business climate and help bolster the economy.

"The goal is not only to reduce the deficit by 2.8% of GDP, the goal is much more ambitious; it must be in the short, medium and long term to reduce the deficit very close to possibly 0%, at least around 1 % of GDP, and we can’t achieve that in one year," Reyes said Monday.

He said the government is advancing toward reaching that goal and will not discard fiscal discipline.

According to the IMF, the country’s 2012 fiscal deficit was 8.5% of GDP.