Santiago – The economist Raúl Ovalle Marte recognized the resilience of the Dominican construction sector, which for 33 months has endured constant increases in construction materials.
During the conference ¨Economic prospects for the construction sector 2023. Risks and opportunities¨, sponsored by the Cibao Association of Home Builders and Developers (APROCOVICI), Ovalle Marte reported that from December 2019 to September 2022 the accumulated increase in raw material prices to build have been close to 40 percent.
When analyzing the relevant external conditions for the Dominican Republic, the also managing partner of the Analytica firm, warned that in 2023 a slowdown is anticipated both in the United States and China and in the euro zone, economies that together represent 60 percent of world GDP. Said slowdown -he explained- could affect the performance of tourism, free zones and remittances.
Resilient DR
¨During the last four decades we registered one of the lowest incidences of crises and the highest average growth in the region. Our trading partners are going to slow down and so are we, but we will have greater resilience than our peers”, assured the expert.
In addition, it established that, during the last decade, construction was the productive sector with the highest average growth, as well as the one with the highest direct incidence in the increase of the Dominican gross domestic product.
construction industry
When analyzing the regional data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), the managing partner of Analytica, showed that in 2021 the GDP of the Dominican construction sector became the largest in Central America, surpassing the sum of Panama , Costa Rica and El Salvador.
Similarly, he reported that nationwide 396 thousand people work in the construction of real estate. Of the figure, 155,000 are employed in the Cibao construction sector, which is equivalent to 40 percent.
