He Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) reported that during the year 2024 remittances received reached the figure of 10,756.0 million dollars, which represents an increase of 598.8 million dollars, for a variation of 5.9% compared to the previous year, reflecting a result aligned with the institution’s projections.
In particular, in the month of December, 1,003.5 million dollars were received for this concept, which means a year-on-year increase of 6.2%.
“It is essential to highlight the importance of these resources sent by the dominican diaspora abroad, since they generate a multiplier effect in consumption, investment and financing of the most vulnerable sectors of the country,” indicated the BCRD through a press release.
The BCRD explains that the economic performance of the United States was a determining factor in the behavior of the remittancessince 80.3% of the formal flows in December, equivalent to 710.5 million dollars, came from that country.
On the one hand, throughout the year 2024 the general unemployment of the North American country remained around 4.0%, around the level of full employment for the United States.
Additionally, the non-manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) of the Institute for Supply and Supply Management (ISM) registered a value of 54.1 in the month of December, two points above the 52.1 observed in November, indicating the expansion of the services sector, where a large part of the dominican diaspora.
He BCRD also highlighted receiving remittances through formal channels from other countries in December.
In that sense, Spain contributed 55.9 million dollars, which represents 6.3% of the total. This country has the second largest number of residents in the dominican diaspora abroad.
For his part, Italy and Haiti they contributed 1.7% and 1.0% of the received flows, respectively. In addition, other countries such as Switzerland, Canada and Panama are identified among the sources of remittances.
Foreign currency generating sectors
After analyzing the recent evolution of the external sectorhe BCRD estimated that in addition to the value achieved by remittances By the end of 2024, it is expected that:
- The income of tourism sector would exceed 10,600 million dollars
- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows would exceed $4.5 billion, covering the current account deficit
- Exports from free zones would be around 8.5 billion dollars and national exports would exceed 5.4 billion dollars.
These foreign exchange income would reach about 43.6 billion dollars, which would contribute to maintaining the relative stability of the exchange rate that is currently observed, such that, at the end of 2024, the national currency depreciated by just 5.0% compared to the end of 2024. 2023.
The institution highlighted that the elderly external income have also made it possible to maintain an adequate level of international reserves, which at the end of December 2024 reached 13,387.6 million dollars, covering about 5.1 months of imports, and equivalent to 10.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP), above the thresholds recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Regarding the outlook for 2025 on inflows of remittancesthe issuing entity estimates that the diaspora will continue to contribute with its efforts to the dominican economy and about 11,000.0 million dollars would be received by the end of the year.
He Central Bank reaffirmed its commitment to surveillance of the economic environment current to continue taking the necessary measures to counteract the impact on the Dominican economy of the challenging international panorama, in order to guarantee price and exchange market stability.
