The Dominican Republic’s economy registered a remarkable year-on-year expansion of 7.8 per cent in April 2024, accumulating an average growth of 5.1 per cent for the January-April 2024 period. 

This April, year-on-year growth is the highest in the last 28 months and stands out as the month with the best performance in the first third of 2024. Noteworthily, the March 2024 results were influenced by the Holy Week holiday and lower economic growth in the United States, its main trading partner.

The Spanish-speaking country’s macroeconomic performance is largely due to the liquidity expansion programme implemented by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) since May 2023. This programme has created favourable monetary and financial conditions, facilitating the channelling of loans for RD$196 billion to productive sectors, MSMEs, and households at interest rates not exceeding nine per cent per year.

The open unemployment rate stood at 5.1 per cent in January-March 2024, a figure similar to that of the same period of the previous year. The average unemployment rate for the last four quarters remained stable at 5.3 per cent.

Private credit in domestic currency expanded 

The Central Bank committed to transparency and timely data dissemination, reports the preliminary results of economic activity through April 2024. Thanks to these measures, private credit in domestic currency expanded by 21.3 per cent year-on-year in April 2024, equivalent to an additional RD$298,561.1 million. 

This credit dynamism, together with the execution of capital expenditure by the Government has been crucial for economic growth. The recent performance of the Dominican economy is also in line with the projections of international organisations, which position the country as one of the fastest-growing economies in the region for 2024. 

Labour market

The National Continuous Household Labor Survey for the first quarter of 2024 shows that the total number of employed persons reached 4,941,183 workers, reflecting a net creation of 172,443 jobs compared to January-March 2023, representing a growth of 3.6 per cent.

Job creation was concentrated in formal employment with an increase of 130,189 people, while total informality grew by an additional 42,254 employed persons, reducing the informality rate from 56.7 per cent to 55.6 per cent.

Outlook

The results obtained augur a favourable performance of the Dominican economy throughout 2024 with a growth projection of five per cent, remaining within the potential rate and being one of the highest in Latin America. Year-on-year inflation is currently at 3.03 per cent, within the target range, with core inflation at 3.99 per cent.