SANTO DOMINGO.-The governor of the Central Bank, Héctor Valdez Albizu, reported that the average year-on-year growth is 5.4% in the period January-September 2022.
After the mass celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Central Bank, Valdez Albizu gave a speech with various announcements regarding economic activity.
He announced that at the end of September the monthly indicator of economic activity (IMAE) registered a year-on-year variation of 4.8% in the aforementioned month.
This increase in turn reflects an average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.4% in January-September 2022, compared to the same period of the previous year.
Regarding exports, he revealed that during the first nine months of the year the total amount of these reached 10,543.3 million dollars, thus growing 14.2% year-on-year.
Regarding foreign exchange earnings, he said that these have favored relative stability in the exchange rate and that this in turn is reflected in a cumulative appreciation of the local currency of 7 percent at the end of September.
Regarding international reserves, he indicated that they remain close to US$14 billion, which is equivalent to 12.3% of GDP.
On the institution's anniversary, the homily was given by Monsignor Cecilio Berzosa, who thanked the authorities and highlighted their work.
The governor of the Central Bank revealed that in the sectoral behavior of GDP in the period indicated, a "notable impact" of services as a whole stands out, which constitute approximately 60% of the economy, highlighting among these the hotels, bars and restaurants that have had a performance of 28.9%.
Valdez Albizu explained that “the hotel, bar and restaurant sector has had the greatest impact on GDP performance in the first nine months of 2022, accounting for approximately one-third of the total expansion during that period, exhibiting a relative variation of 28.9% in terms of real added value.”.
He also noted that 'this year has been extraordinary for the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic, exceeding recovery expectations after the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict to international tourism'.
The governor highlighted that “an unprecedented flow of non-resident passengers was recorded, accumulating 5.3 million visitors in nine months, according to data announced by the Ministry of Tourism, that is, 6.5% and 6.9% more non-resident visitors than in 2018 and 2019, respectively.”.
In this regard, Valdez Albizu indicated that "despite the adversities that the tourism industry has faced worldwide in the current international situation, the Dominican Republic remains the leading destination in terms of tourist arrivals in the Caribbean and Central America region.".
Monetary policy
In his speech, he also said that the policies implemented to deal with the pandemic and its aftermath "prevented a collapse of the economy",
"As you may recall, in this scenario, the Central Bank acted proactively with the support of the Monetary Board, reducing the monetary policy rate (MPR) to its historic low of 3.00%, channeling resources amounting to more than RD$215 billion to companies and households through financial intermediation entities," he reported.
He said that as a result of the successful combination of monetary and fiscal policies, "the economy was able to recover faster than expected.".
Furthermore, he indicated that the fight of monetary policy against inflation, which has materialized in coordination with the fiscal policy of the Government of President Luis Abinader, mainly with the implementation of subsidies for fuels and the electricity tariff, as well as initiatives to lower production costs in agriculture.
"The effectiveness of these measures has been reflected in the downward trajectory recorded by year-on-year inflation in recent months, reaching 8.63% in September, a reduction of 100 basis points from the peak of 9.64% reached in April of this year," he said.
He also noted that inflation was 0.29% in September 2022, following 0.21% in August, variations that reflect a significant moderation compared to the previous 26 months in which monthly inflation averaged 0.78%.
In his presentation, the president of the Monetary Board highlighted that when analyzing data from 18 Latin American economies, it is evident that the Dominican Republic's year-on-year inflation rate is lower than that of eleven countries in the region at the end of September 2002.
