He central bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) reported today that, in January 2023, the remittances received reached a figure of 802.0 million dollars, exhibiting a 5.6% YoY growththat is, some 42.7 million additional dollars to those received in 2022, and an additional 9.2 million dollars with respect to 2021.
“These flows of remittances during the first month of the year continued the path of growth observed since the beginning of the last quarter of 2022, in which the values of October, November and December registered increases of 0.3%, 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively,” the bank said in a press release.
The institution highlighted that the january flowlocated over 800.0 million dollars, is a new monthly level observed in the remittances.
In this sense, he specified that this amount of January 2023 “is about twice the average value in the same month for the pre-pandemic period of 2015-2019″, which was 439.1 million dollars.
“It is important to highlight the multiplier effect on the consumption, investment and financing of the most vulnerable sectors that have these resources provided by the diaspora,” said the central bank.
Important Factor: US Economy
The BCRD explained that the economic performance of the United States was one of the main factors that influenced the behavior of the remittancessince 83.3% of the formal flows in January came from that country, some 544.9 million dollars.
“It is highlighted that during 2022 that economy grew 2.1%according to its Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the unemployment in January 2023 stood at 3.4%, the lowest level in more than 50 years. Additionally, the non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) registered a value of 55.2 in January, indicating the expansion of the services sector, where employees are employed. most of the Dominican diaspora,” he said.
Contributions from other countries
The BCRD also highlighted the receipt of remittances through formal channels from other countries in January, such as Spainfor a value of 45.2 million dollars, a 6.9% of the totalbeing this the second country in terms of total residents of the Dominican diaspora abroad, as well as Haiti and Italywith 1.2% and 1.0% of the flows received, respectively.
He rest of the receipt of remittances is divided between countries as Switzerland, Canada and Panamaamong others.
Provinces where the recipients reside
Regarding the distribution of the remittances received by provinces during January, the BCRD indicated that the National District obtained the highest proportion 35.4%followed by the provinces Santiago and Santo Domingowith 14.0% and 8.0%, respectively.
“This indicates that more than half (58.3%) of the remittances is received at metropolitan areas of the country,” the bank observed.
After analyzing the recent evolution of the external sector, the perspectives of the BCRD contemplate that during 2023 continue important flows of remittancesexports, income from tourism and foreign direct investment.
“These foreign exchange earnings will continue to affect the relative stability of the exchange rate currently observed, in such a way that the national currency appreciated by 0.5% during the month of January,” he said.
The institution highlighted that the greater flows of external income also allowed the accumulation of international reserves at the end of January on the $14.6 billionrepresenting 12.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and about 5.5 months of imports, metrics that exceed the levels recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
