The institution presents the methodological bases that explain the growth of the sector between January and November 2025.
SANTO DOMINGO – The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) published a new Open Page analysis document that explains in detail how the economic activity of the financial intermediation, insurance, and related activities sector is measured, and how these results are integrated into the gross domestic product (GDP). The objective is to clarify how these statistics are compiled and why they adhere to international standards.
The institution explains that the country's national accounts are compiled following the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008), an international framework used by organizations such as the United Nations, the European Commission, the OECD, the IMF, and the World Bank. These estimates utilize censuses, surveys, administrative records, production and price statistics, as well as the financial statements of public and private companies.
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) adds that financial intermediation services are calculated based on the income received by entities in the system, whether from explicit or implicit commissions.
- Explicit fees are the charges we all know: credit cards, account management, late fees, returned checks, and other services.
- Implicit fees, called Indirectly Measured Financial Intermediation Services (SIFMI), represent the margin that entities earn for indirect services associated with loans and deposits.
SIFMIs are calculated in two parts:
- SIFMI of loans, which is the difference between the interest charged by the bank and the interest resulting from applying a reference rate to the average loan.
- SIFMI of deposits, which compares the interest generated by applying that reference rate to the average of deposits with the interest paid to depositors.
The document clarifies that these services are measured indirectly because they do not have a visible price for the user. If they were not included, the actual output of the financial sector would be underestimated.
IMAE and quarterly GDP
For monthly and quarterly statistics, the Central Bank uses the financial statements of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) itself, financial intermediaries, and other regulated entities. The institution notes that the inclusion of SIFMIs (Integrated Financial Institutions) in these measurements strictly adheres to the requirements of the 2008 National Accounts System (SNA).
In the national accounts series with base year 2018, SIFMIs represent around 46% of all financial sector output, a proportion similar to that of countries like Guatemala (58%) and Costa Rica (45%).
Why the sector grew 7.3% between January and November 2025
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) explains that the 7.3% growth in that period is due to the use of subsector-specific price indices, which allow for a more accurate measurement of the real costs of financial intermediation.
If only the average CPI variation (3.77%) were used as a deflator, the growth would be 8.0%, which demonstrates the importance of applying differentiated deflators.
Additional validation
Although GDP by income is not calculated monthly or quarterly, it is possible to make approximations in the financial sector. Under this approach, the sector's nominal growth was 12.0%, which, when adjusted for the CPI, translates into real growth of 8.0%, consistent with the official figure.
The analysis also indicates that 4.9 percentage points of the growth come from deposit-taking societies and the Central Bank, while 2.4 points correspond to insurers and other intermediaries.
The document notes that the value added of financial services does not necessarily have to move at the same rate as total GDP, as each sector has its own dynamics. International literature even shows that, in some cases, the financial sector can grow at different rates without causing an economic imbalance.
