By Jeannette Kranwinkel.
At a time when the government is accused of having taken more than 24 billion dollars in international loans in just two years of management, compromising public finances, President Luis Abinader has justified it in the crisis caused by the pandemic, But he disputed that his predecessors got into debt when the economy was at its best.
I argue, contrary to what independent economists say, that suggestion has reduced the debt in percentage terms of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“What have we done? Reduce the debt in the most difficult moments, when we did have to take on debt for the pandemic,” said the president.
The Head of State assures that the public debt of the non-financial sector fell from 50.4% of GDP in 2021 to 45.8% in 2022, which represents an interannual reduction of 4.7%.
During a press conference, the head of state this Tuesday at the National Palace said: “All governments – look for past governments – increased debt by more than ten percent of GDP. Every one of those governments.” These increases have been relative to the size of the economy, the ruler clarified.
“Why did they take many debts? There was no pandemic, we were in the best moments ”, Abinader wondered and responded at the same time, referring to the fact that the opposition raised it without a pandemic but his administration lowered it with the health crisis and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“So that? That is the question that is difficult for them to answer,” she added.
DICE HAS DELIVERED MORE WORKS
The fiscal accounts managed to maintain the path of sustainability during 2022, driven by an increase in collections and efficiency in spending, while the poverty and employment indicators registered considerable improvements, as a result of the public policies implemented by the Government.
During his speech, President Luis Abinader said that this is the government that in just two years has delivered more works. He specified that not only do they build a large number of important constructions, but they have had to deal with works that were paralyzed for decades, such as the Monte Grande Dam, which he assured is already 87% complete.
In the same way, he cited the Circunvalación de Azua and some 40 schools that were abandoned. He assured that before February 27 they will inaugurate the Los Alcarrizos Cable Car, and that they are working hard on the construction of the subway to Los Alcarrizos.
He pointed out that never before have so many bypasses been under construction, such as the Azua, Baní, San Francisco, Moca, completion of the Santiago and Los Alcarrizos bypasses.
Other works that the president cited are the Boca Chica marginal, the Boca Chica elevated and he assured that by March and April they will be finishing the Avenida Hípica and the San Isidro highway.
The head of state specified that capital investment this year is around 2.5% of GDP, which shows that it is not true that less is being invested. “The money yields more to us, since in each one of the provinces there are works that are being done. There is not a province that is not being attended to”.
Accompanied by the ministers Jochi Vicente, Treasury; Pável Isa, Economy, and Joel Santos, from the Presidency, Abinader highlighted the macroeconomic results of 2022 and the projections for 2023 and 2024.
The economy grew 5% in 2022 and the World Bank’s projection for this in 2023 and 2024 is 4.9%. A growth that is due to the optimism of small and large businesses, according to the minister Pável Isa.
He added that in 2022, public investment was around RD$158 billion, equivalent to 2.5% of GDP, which were invested in 450 public works projects, some 79 more than in 2021.
The official said that as a result of this dynamism, it went from 4.56 million jobs to 4.66 million. He also detailed that 51,292 formal jobs were created and 16,565 informal jobs were lost.
Isa highlighted that on inflation, from 8.50% in 2021 it went to 7.83% in 2022. The Government presumes that the Dominican Republic is the fourth country with the best inflation. This caused the incidence of monetary poverty to drop between 1.6 and 1.8 percentage points, according to the details offered at the press conference.
Isa explained that currencies increased last year by more than US$5,000 million, as a result of exports and tourism.
