The Central Bank reported this afternoon that the monthly indicator of economic activity (IMAE) registered a year-on-year growth of 4.8% in May and an accumulated variation of 5.6% during the first five (5) months of 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021.
In a note, the monetary and financial authority indicated that the performance shown by the Dominican economy this year reflects its resilience and ability to mitigate the impact of the adverse factors that prevail worldwide.
When analyzing in detail the behavior of the IMAE, the following economic activities stand out due to the increase in their added value during the period January-May 2022: hotels, bars and restaurants (35.0%), other service activities (10.9%), health (9.4%), transportation and storage (8.3%), public administration (8.0%), free zone manufacturing (7.9%), trade (7.2%), financial services (6.5%).
growth outlook
Given the uncertainty associated with the international environment and the orientation of the monetary policy of most of the Central Banks towards the normalization of liquidity levels for the stabilization of the inflationary process, the prospects for expansion of the economies have become more conservative, revising downward projections of world growth from 4.4% to 3.6%.
In the case of the Dominican economy, the outlook remains favorable, with one of the highest GDP growth rates among emerging economies and in the region expected to be recorded by the end of 2022, with a variation around its potential, which would be consistent with greater flows of public and private investment in the second half of the year.
Tourism Recovery
The Central Bank indicated that it is important to highlight the year-on-year expansion of 35.0% in the added value of the hotels, bars and restaurants activity at the end of May 2022, which responds fundamentally to the year-on-year increase of 102.2% in the arrival of non-resident passengers. in the first five months of the year.
It maintains that this dynamism was maintained during the month of June when 644,861 tourists arrived in the country, thus managing to accumulate 3.5 million visitors in the first half of 2022, according to preliminary data offered by the Ministry of Tourism, representing approximately US$4,000 million. of foreign currency income, which allows us to project that for the entire year more than US$8,000 million would be received for this concept.
"The recovery of tourism has benefited from the implementation of timely policies aimed at promoting the sustainability of this industry by guaranteeing the protection of travelers in the country in the face of the health situation related to COVID-19, as well as by promotion strategies in the potential issuing markets and renewal of the most attractive destinations in the different provinces of the country to continue strengthening internal and inbound tourism"noted the BC.