D. Of the almost two hours that the president Louis Abinader was taken to account to the nation yesterday, the issue that stopped the most was the economic one. He acknowledged that he is concerned about the level of inflation in the country -which measured year-on-year in January was 8.73%- and announced a series of measures to alleviate its effects on the consumer.
He reported that his administration will increase direct social aid, deploy special programs for the sale of food and subsidies focused, such as the delivery of more Supérate cards, and will adjust the Gas Bonus subsidy to 470 pesos.
In a context of “price distortion due to the pandemic and the latest war events between Russia and Ukraine with global repercussions,” Abinader announced that, starting next week, 300,000 new cards from the Supérate program will be offered to vulnerable people selected by the Unique System of Beneficiaries (Siuben).
Also, the Bono Gas subsidy will be adjusted “immediately” from 228 to 470 pesos to all beneficiaries and 400,000 will be added.
“This amount will be enough for the beneficiaries to afford up to approximately half a 25-pound gas tank,” he estimated. He highlighted that the last adjustment was made in 2008.
“The main concern in economic matters is inflation, which has a very negative effect on the family budget”Republic President
To bring more food to the people, he reported that they are managing to install 54 new cheap dining rooms, to increase them to 105 in the same number of municipalities, and increase the daily cooked food rations to 136 thousand during the coming months.
For the agricultural sector, he announced that the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes monitors the prices of the main raw materials, such as wheat, soybeans and corn. And that the minister was authorized to subsidize up to 10% of a possible increase in these due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The president also authorized doubling in the coming months the 50 mobile warehouses that currently operate, where food products are sold at low prices.
“The government is making budget forecasts and spending control measures to continue subsidizing and prevent the entire increase from being reflected in the price of fuel,” Abinader said, referring to the increase in the cost of oil.
He reported that this year, the government has subsidized RD$2.6 billion and last year RD$13 billion to assume the increase in fuel prices.
“We are going to do everything in our power to mitigate the effects of inflation and protect the well-being of Dominicans,” he emphasized. But, he noted that this means that the government will have to make adjustments and modifications to the budget in view of the special situation of distortion and inflation.
“We will have to make adjustments and modifications to the budget in the face of this special situation of distortion and inflation”Republic President
Abinader projected that, in a period of less than four years, the Dominican Republic will have 2,000 new megawatts of energy installed, without the government having to invest or borrow a single peso.
“All the costs and loans will be assumed by the private companies and consortiums that are winners of the tenders, while the State, through the distribution companies, will buy the energy and capacity through long-term competitive contracts,” Abinader said.
He added that, in most of the nations of Latin America, the electrical systems work with a slack or generation reserve, called by experts as a cold reserve, equivalent to at least between 10 and 15% of the maximum demand, that is say between 200 megawatts and 300 megawatts. “The reserve found by this government in 2020, as we have already said, was only 62 megawatts, that is, it did not reach 2 percent,” he indicated.
The president also assured that, as a result of the measures applied, the government can ensure that African swine fever “so far is under control.”
The disease hit smaller-scale growers hard last year. Given this, Abinader highlighted that they have been compensated for the slaughtered pigs, meaning an investment of RD$1.4 billion until yesterday.
your satisfaction
Although the president acknowledged that his government has a high challenge with inflation, he did not detract from the country’s economic growth reported by official figures. He highlighted that the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached a year-on-year growth of 12.3% between January-December 2021. “This growth places the Dominican Republic among the top 10 countries with the highest economic growth in the world in 2021 and consolidates our economy as the most dynamic in Latin America”, he said. He added that, in 2021, the Dominican Republic positioned itself as the main recipient of foreign direct investment from Central America and the Caribbean.
