A look at the economy

Dr1.com, Santo Domingo , July 3 rd 2008

B etween January and June 2008 the Government spent RD$130.9 billion, of which RD$43.5 billion or 32.4% was spent on subsidizing fuel, free trade zones, bakers, milk producers, transport, farmers and other sectors. The Government spent an additional RD$41.5 billion, interests payments accounted for RD$134.1 billion, loans RD$4.88 billion and RD$28.9 billion went towards capital spending. The central Government's revenues were up with the Tax Department (DGII), Customs and the Treasury collecting a total of RD$132.3 billion. This is 9.9% more than was budgeted and is 4.7% higher than the same period in 2007. The report by the Ministry of Hacienda says that inflation between January and May was 5.07%. The report also indicates that there was less money circulating in the DR in June, with RD$133.4 billion in circulation. This is RD$655.2 billion less than in May 2008. Listin Diario writes that this restrictive policy could be a way of combating inflation caused by the devaluation of the dollar and fuel price increases. Gross international reserves registered at US$2.6 billion in June; that is US$2.21 billion less than May. Net international reserves decreased from US$2.2 billion to US$1.95 billion.