On May 25, a report by the Economic Intelligence Unit of the magazine The Economist said the following: “The Caribbean nation (referring to D.R.) is entering into crisis like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. with relatively high levels of public debt, substantial external imbalances, and high inflation, and neither is a major commodity exporter.”
A year ago the same Unit said: “The Dominican Republic is It is ready to be one of the countries in Latin America that overcomes the recession induced by the pandemic more quickly.” What is that change in perspective?
Let’s see the IMF report on May 16 after scrutinizing every corner of our economy, something that The Economist does not do.
“The economy of the Dominican Republic continued demonstrating remarkable resilience to global shocks, which was sustained He was on appropriate policies including the support of monetary policy, an agile vaccination campaign against COVID and a reopening that allowed him to continue. make the most of last year’s revival of the global economy. This resilience and the strong signs of policy sustainability (TRANSPARENCE) are placing the Dominican economy in a good position to face emerging international challenges.”
Where is he? What is the root of the problem? Because the economic figures for Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic so far in 2022 are much better than most South American countries.
Debt problems have Argentina and Brazil, large producers and exporters of food raw materials, which accumulate a year-on-year inflation of 58% and 12.5% as of April. And then?
We are among the 10 countries with the lowest debt/GDP. Fiscal deficits are much higher in South America than in Central America and the Caribbean.
The root of this comment is that the Dominican Republic and Central America They do not produce oil or export raw materials, while in South America many produce and export both and are better able to control prices and their external imbalances.
However, The Economist Something: we have a lot of oil that is not necessarily black. And it’s called tourism, remittances, foreign investment, mining (gold, ferronickel) and our exports, including free zones, already exceed US$12 billion a year.
The crisis it will get worse, but we will be much more prepared to face it than most of the countries in the region.