The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) reported that the monthly indicator of economic activity (IMAE) registered an accumulated expansion of 5.2% during the first ten months of 2022, compared to the same period of the previous year, after presenting an interannual variation of 3.8% in October.
SANTO DOMINGO.-The construction sector shows a year-on-year variation of 1.6% in the first ten months of 2022, a moderate growth rate that the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) attributes to "the combination of the substantial increase in the prices of materials such as cement, rebar, among others, used as inputs in this activity."
The agency also states that there was a readjustment of construction schedules in a context of rising interest rates and that it expects the acceleration in public capital spending, through the execution of major civil engineering and infrastructure projects carried out by the Government, to help offset the performance of the sector.
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) reported that the monthly indicator of economic activity (IMAE) registered an accumulated expansion of 5.2% during the first ten months of 2022, compared to the same period of the previous year, after presenting an interannual variation of 3.8% in October.
According to the regulatory body's report, the hotel, bar, and restaurant sector showed an average year-on-year increase of 26.8% in terms of real value added, contributing 1.4 percentage points (pp) to the 5.2% growth in the Monthly Index of Economic Activity (IMAE) for January-October 2022, thus accounting for one-third of the year-to-date growth. This sector's performance was driven by external demand for the country's tourism services, reflected in the arrival of 5.8 million visitors during the period, representing a year-on-year increase of 55.5%.
This momentum continued into November, with approximately 571,354 tourists arriving, bringing the total number of non-resident passengers entering the country by air to 6.4 million in the first eleven months of 2022. This represents a record number of arrivals for those months in a single year, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Tourism. Additionally, when the 1.1 million cruise ship passengers who arrived at the country's various ports are included, the total number of visitors reached 7.5 million between January and November 2022.
“The Central Bank says that growth in the first ten months is in line with the projected real GDP expansion of 5.0%-5.5% by the end of the year.”
In other respects, the expansion in value added in trade (6.2%) and transportation and storage (7.1%) activities is closely linked to the dynamism in the production, distribution, and marketing of agricultural and manufactured goods of both local and imported origin, as well as to the flow of land passengers. The combined contribution of these two activities to the January-October IMAE growth was 1.3 percentage points, representing approximately 25% of the aforementioned year-on-year increase of 5.2%.
Meanwhile, the real value added of manufacturing in free trade zones registered a year-on-year increase of 6.3% in the first ten months of the year. During this period, this sector reached an export level of US$6,608.4 million, an increase of approximately US$649.1 million (10.9%). Regarding local manufacturing, this activity registered a 3.2% growth in its real value added in January-October 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year. Particularly favorable performance was observed in the manufacture of chemical substances and products, the production of beverages and tobacco products, and other manufacturing industries.
Similarly, the agricultural sector has maintained positive performance, with an 8.4% year-on-year increase in October and a cumulative growth of 4.6% from January to October. This performance has been supported by timely measures implemented by the Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies, aimed at providing technical and financial support to agricultural producers nationwide.
Sectors
During January-October 2022, the significant impact of the services sector as a whole stands out, representing approximately 60.0% of the total economy and showing a year-on-year increase of 7.0% during that period. Among the activities that comprise this sector, the performance of hotels, bars, and restaurants (26.8%), healthcare (10.7%), other service activities (8.7%), public administration (7.5%), transportation and storage (7.1%), trade (6.2%), and financial services (5.4%) is noteworthy. Agriculture showed a 4.6% increase, while in the industrial sector, activity in free trade zones grew by 6.3%, local manufacturing by 3.2%, and construction by 1.6%.
The results of the National Continuous Labor Force Survey (ENCFT) conducted during the third quarter of 2022 show that the total number of employed individuals (including both formal and informal workers) reached 4,633,135, a level similar to that observed in the same quarter of 2019, that is, the total employment level prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the employment rate, defined as the ratio between total employment and the working-age population (WAP), stood at 59.2%, 0.3 percentage points higher than that recorded in the July-September 2021 period.
As for the open unemployment rate, which is defined as the percentage of unemployed people who are actively seeking work, it decreased by 3.2 percentage points, from 8.0% recorded in January-March 2021 to 4.8% in July-September 2022, and by 2.0 percentage points when compared to the figure of 6.8% reported in July-September 2021.
