The Governor of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD), Héctor Valdez Albizu, announced that the monthly indicator of economic activity (IMAE) registered an inter-annual growth of 3.1% in September 2023, the highest rate of the current year. With this result, the real gross domestic product (GDP) increase in the July-September quarter was 2.6 %, for an accumulated January-September of 1.7 %.
He detailed that “the greatest contribution in January-September came from hotels, bars and restaurants, which grew 10.9 %, maintaining the great dynamism exhibited throughout the year. In September alone, the country received 478,792 tourists by air, accumulating a record 6,023,573 non-resident visitors during the first nine months of the year, with a hotel occupancy rate of 75%. If we add to this the more than 1,607,360 cruise passengers who visited the country in January-September, the total number of visitors reached 7,630,933, another historic milestone for tourism”.
He also pointed out that the performance in September of the construction activity, a sector with a great multiplier effect on other economic activities, is remarkable.
He emphasized that after presenting negative records in some months of the first half of this year, largely due to the moderation of domestic demand and high input costs, construction continued to recover by expanding 9.5% in September 2023 compared to the same month of the previous year, standing out as the best performance recorded so far this year. Likewise, agriculture and livestock exhibited an inter-annual increase of 3.4% in September, for an increase of 3.8% in January-September 2023.
The governor of the BCRD emphasized that the international community has recognized as meritorious the Dominican economic performance this year, despite the unfavorable environment. In this regard, he noted that just a few days ago, Katie Taylor, director of the Pan American Development Foundation, an independent organization affiliated to the Organization of American States (OAS), said that the Dominican Republic “is a light in the hemisphere, with democratic stability, economic stability and development”.
Valdez Albizu offered the data in his customary speech on the occasion of the anniversary of the institution in the seventy-sixth year of its foundation.
Source: Arecoa
