Hotels, bars and restaurants sector grew 31.2%, health (11.3%), transport and storage (7.1%), commerce (6.5%) and financial services (5.8%)
From January to August of this year the dominican economy grew 5.5%, mainly due to the increase in the service sectors, mainly hotels, industries, the activity of free zones, local manufacturing and construction.
The central bank announced the results of the Indicator Monthly of Economic Activity (IMAE) and in the eight months of this year there was an accumulated interannual variation of 5.5% and in the month of August there was an increase of 5.4% compared to the same month of the previous year. The notable incidence of services as a whole stands out, which constitute approximately 60% of the total economy and present an accumulated interannual variation of 7.5%.
The performance of hotels, bars and restaurants (31.2%), health (11.3%), other service activities (9.1%), public administration (7.8%), transportation and storage (7.1%), commerce (6.5%) and financial services (5.8%). Regarding industries, free zone activity grew 7.0%, local manufacturing 4.4% and construction 2.7%; while agriculture grew 3.4% in the referred period. As a reflection of the economic dynamism, private credit in national currency is growing by more than 14% year-on-year at the end of September, similar to the expansion of nominal GDP. And total private loans in foreign currency registered a year-on-year variation of 16.5% in that period.
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Likewise, it revealed the results of the Continuous National Survey of the Workforce (ENCFT) corresponding to April – June 2022, the total number of employed persons (including formal and informal) reached 4,702,017 workers. When comparing with the second quarter of 2021, an increase of 169,309 net employed persons was verified, equivalent to a growth of 3.7%.
The open unemployment rate, which is defined as the percentage of unemployed people who are actively looking for work, registered a notable reduction, going from 8.0% in January-March 2021 to 5.2% in April-June 2022.
In another order, the exports of January and August were US$9,422.9 million, showing a growth of 15.4%. And those of the month of August 2022 registered a value of US$1,223.7 million, increasing US$137.2 million (12.6%) in year-on-year terms.
