Despite the stimulus measures announced by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) in June 2025, the construction sector continues to face difficulties in resuming previous dynamism.
Of the 81,000 million pesos released, more than 8,600 million were allocated to this activity, distributed among more than 234 beneficiaries, with an average of 36.7 million pesos per company, according to official data of the BCRD.
However, the president of the Dominican Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises of Construction (Copymecon), Eliseo Cristopher, questioned the scope of these placements.
“We see that the Central Bank He is talking about that some 66 billion pesos have already been placed, with a surplus still missing, but when you go to the banks that money no longer exists. And that happens since the funds are released, when you go to the financial institutions to search, the resources are never there,” said the representative of the small builders.
Cristopher stated that the impact of the liberation of legal reserve “it has not been what was expected,” and called for strengthening supervision so that a significant proportion of the resources reach MSMEs, which are the majority in the sector.
He also insisted that the Government housing plans They must include participation mechanisms for small construction companies, as well as tax relief that promotes formalization and employment.
Behavior
During the first half of the year, the construction sector experienced a contraction of -2.3%, affected by high real interest rates, the postponement of private projects and public capital spending below the historical average, according to the Central Bank.
However, in May 2025 the sector showed signs of recovery, with a growth of 1.9%, reducing the accumulated fall to -1.5%.
In July, year-on-year expansion was 3.8%, reflecting the first effects of liquidity measures. Even so, at the end of September, construction maintained a variation of -2.0%, evidencing insufficient progress compared to the magnitude of the monetary stimulus.
The economy
The governor of BCRDHéctor Valdez Albizu, highlighted last Tuesday that, despite the adverse international environment, the Dominican economy maintains sustained growth and macroeconomic stability.
In his speech for the institution’s 78th anniversary, he reported that the Gross domestic product (GDP) accumulated growth of 2.2% in the January-September 2025 period, a pace similar to that projected for the region.
Among the sectors that contributed the most to growth are financial services (7.4%)agriculture (3.9%), mining (3.7%) and tourism (3.3%), with 8.6 million visitors received between January and September, including 6.6 million by air and two million by sea.
The governor noted that it is expected that the dominican economy gradually return to its potential growth in the coming quarters, to the extent that global uncertainty dissipates, private investment is reactivated and public sector capital spending increases.
Financial system and legal reserve
He explained that after keeping his monetary policy rate In the first eight months of 2025, the Central Bank decided to reduce it by 25 basis points, placing it at 5.50% annually, with the objective of supporting the recovery of domestic demand, in an environment of low inflation.
In addition, the Monetary Board approved a liquidity provision program for 81 billion pesos in June 2025, of which 66 billion pesos have been placed, facilitating access to credit for companies and households.
Macroprudential measures were also adopted to reinforce the financial stability in the face of high volatility in the markets.
“These decisions have increased liquidity in the financial systemfavoring the reduction of interest rates. In effect, the weighted average deposit rate of commercial banks was 6.6% so far in October 2025, below the 10.3% in October 2024. active ratefor its part, decreased from 15.3% to 13.9% in the same period, indicating that the monetary policy transmission mechanism continues to work,” he highlighted.
- Private loans In national currency they grew around 9.0% year-on-year, above the nominal gross domestic product.
Financial system
In regards to the Dominican financial systemsaid that the main indicators reflect efficient management, with high levels of capitalization, liquidity and solvency, that is, the system has the means to contribute to facing the challenges of the uncertain global environment.
“At the end of September, the assets of the financial system grew by 11.5% and the heritage increased by 10.2%. The return on equity (ROE) was 21.7% and the return on assets (ROA) 2.6%, while the default rate was 1.9%,” he added.
He specified that heto solvency regulatory level reached 18.4% in June, above the required minimum of 10%, according to the most recent figures published by the Superintendency of Banks.
