SANTO DOMINGO – The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) registered a monthly variation of 0.71% in August 2025, placing the year-on-year inflation rate measured from August 2024 to August 2025 at 3.71%. With this result, inflation has remained within the monetary program's target range of 4.0% ± 1.0% for the past 28 months and is among the lowest in non-dollarized economies in Latin America.
The monetary authority highlights in its report that core inflation year-on-year stood at 4.32% in August, remaining within the target range of 4.0% ± 1.0%. This indicator allows for clearer signals to be drawn for the conduct of monetary policy, as it excludes certain items that do not typically respond to liquidity conditions in the economy, such as food with highly volatile prices, fuels, and services with regulated prices like electricity and transportation, as well as alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
The Central Bank highlighted that, to estimate the Consumer Price Index (CPI), it conducts the National Consumer Price Survey (ENPC) every month in a sample of 11,163 establishments across all provinces of the country. It indicated that, through this rigorous process, which incorporates best practices for data collection and processing, more than 200,000 price quotes are gathered for the 364 items that comprise the basket of goods and services representative of Dominican household consumption expenditures. This statistical operation receives ongoing technical support from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which considers the country a benchmark in the region.
In that vein, the report indicated that inflation by geographic region in August, compared to July 2025, shows that the price index for the Ozama region, which includes the National District and Santo Domingo province, experienced a variation of 0.67%, the North or Cibao region 0.84%, the East region 0.60%, and the South region 0.62%, resulting in a national average of 0.71%. The more pronounced rate of variation observed in the North region is due to a greater contribution from items with high weight in its consumer basket, such as fresh chicken, green plantains, cassava, and public transportation.
Variation by groups
When analyzing the results of the monthly variation of the general CPI in August 2025, it is observed that the groups with the greatest impact on inflation were Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Transportation, Education, Restaurants and Hotels, Miscellaneous Goods and Services and Communications, which together explained more than ninety percent of the inflation of the aforementioned month.
The Central Bank explains in its monthly report that the 1.24% variation recorded in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages category is mainly due to price increases in items such as fresh chicken, cassava, plantains and green bananas, pineapple, and cod, among others. In particular, it is worth noting that the combined effects of high temperatures and the rainy season characteristic of this time of year continue to seasonally impact the productivity of fresh chicken, resulting in price increases for this food item, which has the largest relative weight within the group. Meanwhile, some products such as avocados, oranges, garlic, carrots, potatoes, and onions, among others, experienced price decreases, partially mitigating the overall inflation of the group.
Regarding the Transportation group index, the report indicates that it showed a variation of 0.81% due to the increases seen in automobiles, urban land transport services and school transport, the latter being a reflection of the usual behavior associated with the start of the school period.
Similarly, the Education group's Consumer Price Index (CPI) registered an inflation rate of 2.18%, driven by increases in private school fees for primary, secondary, and preschool education, a seasonal trend linked to the school enrollment process. Additionally, increases were observed in university education services. Other components of school spending that showed positive variations during August were school books and uniforms.
Regarding the Restaurants and Hotels group, it revealed a variation rate of 0.57% as a result of increases in the prices of meals prepared outside the home, primarily in daily specials, chicken service, and other similar items. It is important to note that the rise in the price index observed in food service is due to the increased costs of basic inputs used in food preparation, which directly impact the consumer price of these services.
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) reports that the Miscellaneous Goods and Services group index showed a variation of 0.37%, explained by the rise in prices for personal care services and products. Meanwhile, the Communications sector showed a rate of 1.05%, resulting from price increases in bundled telecommunications services.
Inflation of Tradable and Non-Tradable Goods:
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) report indicates that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for tradable goods experienced a variation of 0.63% in August 2025, mainly driven by price increases in automobiles, bottled beer, and some food items. The monthly variation of the index for non-tradable goods and services was 0.79%.
Inflation by Quintiles:
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) concludes that the price indices by socioeconomic strata showed inflation rates of 0.67% for quintile 1, 0.74% for quintile 2, and 0.69% for quintile 3. Meanwhile, quintiles 4 and 5 showed variations of 0.78% and 0.59%, respectively. The lower inflation rate recorded in quintile 5 is largely due to the lower weighting of food in the consumption basket of higher-income households, along with the decrease in airfares, which mitigated the impact of the Transportation group in this stratum. In contrast, quintile 4 showed a greater impact from increases in the prices of public transportation services.
