SANTO DOMINGO.- The economist Haivanjoe Ng Cortiñas He presented in advance his economic reading prior to the rendering of accounts of President L.uis Abinaderthrough a counter-economic accounting, in which official data is reinterpreted from the daily life of Dominican households.
Accounting from the home table and from the people’s pockets is the best way to understand what happened in 2025, very different from doing it from the National Assembly Hall, said the economist.
Low growth and weak economy
Ng Cortiñas described the economic performance of 2025 as low and weak, growing only 2.1%, well below the historical average of close to 5.5% and the estimated potential of around 5%.
He pointed out that this growth was insufficient to generate quality employment and real increases in income, maintaining high levels of informality and an economy in a state of productive underutilization.
He detailed that key sectors showed limited performance, such as manufacturing (1.6%), construction (-1.8%) and services (2.7%), which directly impacted the quality of life of the population.
He maintains that this low growth is compounded by a central contradiction of the year: the Dominican economy did not face a shortage of foreign currency. On the contrary, the external sector generated US$47.3 billion, the highest level in history. However, that record did not translate into internal dynamism.
He pointed out that in 2025 there was no shortage of dollars; What was missing was an economic policy capable of converting them into production, employment and well-being, he maintained.
Inflation that hits the poor hardest
General inflation closed at 4.95%, close to the upper limit of the target range, but Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation reached 8.2%, almost double.
Since low- and middle-income households spend more than 35% of their spending on food, their actual inflation was closer to 8% than the national average.
The result was regressive inflation that punished those who had the least the most, he said.
Income that is not enough
According to the National Continuous Labor Force Survey (ENCFT), the average hourly income of the employed population increased around 2% nominally in 2025. However, when discounting inflation: Real wages fell about 3% using general inflation, and more than 6% when food inflation was considered.
In 2025, more hours were worked to buy fewer things: days of up to 45 hours a week with income that was between RD$70 and RD$90 per hour in many cases, reflecting the reality of the table in Dominican homes, he explained.
More liquidity in the economy, less well-being in homes
The economist highlighted that money held by the public grew 14.9% in 2025, well above the growth of GDP and labor income, which was only 2.0%.
The economy had more liquidity, but not more well-being. The increase in money was concentrated in large companies, financial intermediation and higher income strata, while working households faced higher prices and lower purchasing power, he noted.
More public spending, but less growth
Ng Cortiñas indicated that the Government executed close to RD$1.49 trillion in 2025, the highest level of public spending in recent history. However, this greater spending did not translate into greater economic growth.
He explained that the composition of spending was decisive: current spending represented around 87% of the total, while capital spending was barely around 13%.
This implies that most of the budget was allocated to operations, transfers and interests, and not to productive public investment capable of boosting the economy.
Added to this structural weakness is that the fiscal deficit closed at around 3.2% of GDP in 2025.
There was more public spending, but little transformative. There was a deficit, but without equivalent growth. And there were more resources in the State, but without a proportional impact on the well-being of households, he explained.
Larger and heavier public debt
Total public debt went from US$57,587 million in December 2024 to US$61,549 million in December 2025, an increase of close to US$4,000 million in a single year.
Furthermore, debt pressure on the economy increased from 46.3% to 47.9% of GDP, reflecting simultaneous growth in balance and relative burden.
This increase translated into RD$301,736 million allocated to interest payments in 2025, equivalent to 20.2% of total public spending. One in every five pesos of the budget did not reach the people; He went to pay debt, he stressed.
Stability in numbers, pressure in homes
Ng Cortiñas concluded that in 2025 there was macroeconomic stability in the indicators, but decline in the daily life of the population, evidenced by:
• prices grew faster than incomes,
• employment did not guarantee well-being,
• and economic policy prioritized financial stability over shared prosperity.
The economy of 2025 may look orderly in the indicators, but disorderly in households, the economist concluded.
