Luis Abinader justifies the loans of his management

President Luis Abinader justified yesterday the amount of loans taken in his management by indicating that they were due to the crisis caused by the pandemic, but that past governments requested them without justification and at a time when the economy was at its best.

However, he expressed that his management has reduced the debt in percentage terms of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “What have we done? Reduce debt in the most difficult moments, when we did have to take on debt for the pandemic,” said Abinader.

“”Why did they take on a lot of debt? There was no pandemic, we were in the best of times””Luis Abinaderon PLD loans“

The head of state refers to the fact that the public debt of the non-financial sector fell from 50.4% of GDP in 2021 to 45.8% in 2022, which represents a year-on-year reduction of 4.7%.

During a press conference to show the macroeconomic results of his administration in 2022, the head of state said: “All governments – look for past governments – increased debt by more than 10% of GDP. Every one of those governments.” These increases have been relative to the size of the economy, the ruler clarified.

“Why did they take so many debts? There was no pandemic, we were in the best moments ”, Abinader wondered and responded at the same time, referring to the fact that the opposition raised it without a pandemic, but his administration lowered it with the health crisis and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“So that? That is the question that is difficult for them to answer,” added the president when answering questions from journalists during a press conference at the Palace.

Development last year and projection of 2023

Abinader was accompanied by the ministers jochi vincent, Tax authorities; Pável Isa, Economy, and Joel Santos, of the Presidency to show the macroeconomic results of 2022 and the projections of 2023 and 2024.

The economy grew 5% in 2022 and the World Bank projection for 2023 and 2024 is 4.9%. A growth that is due to the optimism of small and large businesses, according to Minister Pavel Isa.

In 2022, public investment was around RD$158 billion, equivalent to 2.5% of GDP, which was invested in 450 public works projects, some 79 more than in 2021, he indicated.

As a result of this dynamism, it went from 4.56 million jobs to 4.66 million, added the official.

51,292 formal jobs were created and 16,565 informal jobs were lost. and regarding inflation, from 8.50% in 2021 it went to 7.83% in 2022.

The Government presumes that the Dominican Republic is the fourth country with the best inflation. This caused the incidence of monetary poverty to fall between 1.6 and 1.8 percentage points.

Isa explained that currencies increased last year by more than US$5,000 million, as a result of exports and tourism.

Prudent in spending

José Manuel -Jochi- Vicente, Minister of Finance, said that the Government acted with the prudent management of spending, which contributed to the rapid response to the damage left by the natural phenomena that affected the country.

He explained that last year, the Government approved 18.8% of GDP and, due to the efficiency of spending, 1.4% was added to extraordinary subsidies to face inflation caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Revenues were RD$955,996 million, equivalent to 15.3% GDP. The General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII) collected RD$656,822 million and that of Customs (DGA) RD$230,911 million, 8.1% and 20.3% more than in 2021.

In addition, he specified that RD$85.922 million were allocated to cushion the rise in fuel and food and to expand social programs.

Vicente recalled the BB rating given to the country by the Standard & Poor’s agency, which positions it among the Latin American nations that have improved their risk profile amid the uncertainty surrounding the world economy.