The international organization maintains its economic growth outlook of 3% for the Dominican Republic by the end of 2023, while it expects a positive performance of 5.2% for 2024.
SANTO DOMINGO– “The strong performance of foreign direct investment reflects the confidence of foreign investors in the solid economic fundamentals of the Dominican Republic,” said Emilio Fernández-Corugedo, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, after a day of meetings with the main monetary, financial and state entities.
In the report's conclusions, the international organization maintains its economic growth outlook of 3% for the Dominican Republic by the end of 2023, while expecting a positive performance of 5.2% for 2024.
"For the Dominican economy, we think that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be growing around three percent by 2023, due to the slowdown in the global economy, the restrictive global financial conditions and the prudent domestic policies adopted," said Fernández-Corugedo.
He noted that the preliminary results of his economic assessment remain in line with the forecasts reflected in the World Economic Outlook report from October of this year.
Regarding inflation, he said they expect it to end these twelve months at 4% – within the target range of 4.0% ± 1.0%. “This is largely thanks to the monetary measures taken since 2021 and the fiscal measures implemented during 2022 and this year,” the executive stated.
Inflation expectations are "strongly" anchored around the inflation target. In that regard, Fernández emphasized that the monetary authority has more than fulfilled its obligations regarding inflation.
2024 Projection
The IMF representative maintained that the measures adopted have laid a solid foundation to support growth starting in 2024. The process of normalizing monetary policy, complemented by other actions implemented by the Central Bank, along with increased public infrastructure spending, would help the economy grow by 5.2%.
If stability is maintained, he said growth is expected to expand by around 5% and inflation is projected to remain within its target range.
On the other hand, the Mission highlighted the robustness of the Dominican financial system, which presents adequate levels of:
- Capitalization
- Liquidity
- Profitability
In addition to the economy, the mission assessed the fiscal sector: "Our fiscal projections foresee an appropriate and gradual consolidation in the medium term, as well as a gradual improvement in the current account of the external sector," it said.
In this latter case, it is important to emphasize that foreign direct investment remains an important source of current account financing, with expected flows exceeding $4 billion in 2023 and approaching $4.5 billion in 2024.
