The central bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) reported that the international reserves remain at historically high levels, around US$14.25 billion, equivalent to 13.1% of GDP and 5.9 months of imports, exceeding the metrics recommended by the IMF.
In its most recent publication, it indicates that these factors have favored the relative stability of the exchange rate, reflected in an accumulated appreciation of 4% at the end of May, which, together with the measures adopted for monetary normalization, are helping to moderate inflationary pressures. of external origin.
Foreign exchange generators in the Dominican Republic
According to data from the BCRD, the year-on-year expansion of 35.0% in the added value of the hotels, bars and restaurants activity at the end of May 2022, responds fundamentally to the year-on-year increase of 102.2% in the arrival of non-resident passengers in the first five months of this year. This dynamism continued during the month of June when 644,861 tourists arrived in the countrythus managing to accumulate 3.5 million visitors in the first half of 2022according to preliminary data offered by the Ministry of Tourism, representing approximately four billion dollars of foreign exchange income, which allows us to project that for the entire year more than eight billion dollars would be received for this concept.
Exports
The central bank indicated that exports in the month of May registered a growth of 10.5%, some 111.9 million additional dollars to those observed in May 2021, largely explained by the increase in exports from free zones, which totaled some 672.3 million dollars. Dollars.
According to the BCRD, the activities with the greatest impact on the behavior of the free zones were the production of medical equipment, textile clothing and tobacco manufacturing.
Similarly, official data indicates that the growth of national exports stands out, totaling 501.5 million dollars, some 46.4 million dollars more (10.2%) than May 2021.
remittances
On the other hand, remittances reached some 851.2 million dollars in May, above their historical average monthly flow, projecting that at the end of this year they would be receiving close to 10,000 million dollars for this concept.
imports
Regarding total imports, the central bank reports that these registered a value in May of 2,504.0 million dollars, a year-on-year increase of 550.0 million dollars (28.1%).
Within this result, non-oil imports reached 1,970.1 million dollars, exhibiting an increase of 17.6%, in accordance with the behavior of aggregate demand. As for oil imports, they grew by 91.4% compared to May 2021
