In April real growth was estimated at -29.8% and for Jan-Apr at -7.5%

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - In Brief 11 Jun 2020 by Pavel Isa

The Central Bank has just reported that in April the economic activity declined by 29.8% compared to April last year and that between January and April it fell by 7.5%. This is the sharpest decline in economic activity in recent economic history. These figures are not surprising at all. In fact, some expected an even bigger contraction in April. The activities that fell the most between January and April were hotels, bars and restaurants (-34.1%), construction (-24.5%), mines and quarries (-11.4%), other services (-9.7%), transportation (-9.6%) , free zone manufacturing (-8.8%) and local manufacturing (-5.2%). Some of the activities that grew were health (12.4%), finance (9.8%), agriculture (5.2%) and communications (4.8%). In May the drop is likely to have been less sever, perhaps between -15% and -20%. In that month, some sectors, particularly the informal and poor, were forced to start operating partially and far from the eyes of the authorities. In June growth is expected to remain negative. However, due to the start of the reopening, the level of activity will be much higher than in May, so the decrease will surely be in the single digits.

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