Central Bank says economy at robust growth; Sept. prices climb 2.35%

Santo Domingo.- Central banker Hector Valdez Albizu on Thursday said the Dominican economy grew 7.0% from January through September, led by mining, 24.1%; construction, 10.7, and hotels, bars and restaurants, 8.2%.

"This performance is in harmony with the 7.6% increase from sales of the companies reported to Internal Taxes from January to August 2014, noting that the fastest growing in GDP were the activities that increased the most," Valdez said in a speech to mark the Central Bank’s 67th anniversary.

He said there were 165,799 more net jobs from October 2013 to October 2014, with 235,600 workers joining the work force since October 2012, “which suggest that president Danilo Medina’s goal of creating 400,000 new jobs would be reached before the end of his term.”

Prices climb 2.35%

The official said prices climbed 2.53% during the January-September period, paced by health, 8.2; financial intermediation and insurance 7.8%; education 6.7%; manufacturing 5.7%, transport 5.6%, agriculture 5.4% and retail sales 5.0%.

He said the annualized inflation measured over the last 12 months from September 2013 stood at 2.83%, “which puts the country in the second place among Latin America’s countries with the lowest inflation, excluding dollarized nations.”