Astonishing GDP, employment and CAD figures for H1

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - In Brief 25 Aug 2016 by Pavel Isa

---

On Wednesday, the Central Bank reported GDP preliminary figures for H1 2016. Results are, once again, surprising: a 7.4% growth compared to H1 2015. This remarkable expansion of economic activity was mainly driven by an extraordinary expansion of production in Q2, when GDP registered an 8.7% growth compared to the same period of 2015. The report states: "This performance... is explained by the expansion in activities such as construction (17.7%), which for 12 consecutive quarters has had the highest incidence (in GDP growth) and by mining (25.1%), financial intermediation (11.0%), health (9.5%), agriculture (8.0%), other services (7.2%), education (7.0%), commerce (6.2%), local manufacturing (6.0 %), transportation (5.1%) and hotels, bars and restaurants (4.9%). These activities all together account for about 84.3% of the growth of the Dominican economy in that period. " The report added that mining, which was lagging behind in 2015, recorded an annual growth of 25.1%, mainly due to increased production of gold, silver and copper, and the resumption of mining operations (extraction of ferronickel) in April, paralyzed since late 2013. Labor market figures were also in the up side: 173.402 new jobs were created between April 2015 and April 2016, for an average of approximately 14,450 new jobs per month. Astonishingly, in H1 CAD closed in blue, at USD 129.9 million, underpinned mainly by the dynamism in tourism revenues and remittances; as well as the sustained fall in international prices of oil and its derivatives. Foreign exchange earnings amounted to USD 11.75 bn, an increase of 3.2% compared to H1 2015. Tourism proceeds reached USD 3.39 bn, 8.2% larger than in the sa...