Spanish
Dominican Republic, June 30 (EFE).- The Dominican Republic maintained its monetary policy interest rate (MPR) at 5.75% per annum for the sixth consecutive month, a decision that took into consideration the evolution of the international environment and the internal economic situation, the Central Bank reported this Monday.
Also, in a statement, the issuing entity noted that the rate of the permanent liquidity expansion facility (Repos at 1 day) remains at 6.25% per annum and that of remunerated deposits (Overnight) at 4.50%.
When adopting these measures, the Dominican Central Bank took into account -in its June monetary policy meeting- the increase in global uncertainty, "associated with the escalation of geopolitical conflicts that has caused greater volatility in the price of oil", and that interest rates remain high in the United States due to "the inflationary risks that could materialize due to the new tariff policies".
At the national level, it was taken into consideration that the recently adopted liquidity provision measures would contribute to boosting credit to the private sector, as the monetary policy transmission mechanism operates, as well as that inflation has remained within the target range of 4.0% ± 1.0% in the last two years.
Last May, year-on-year inflation stood at 3.84% and core inflation (which excludes the prices of the most volatile components of the basket and is more directly associated with monetary conditions) at 4.22%, both around the center of the target range, in which they should remain in 2025 and 2026 in an active monetary policy scenario, according to forecasting models.
The Central Bank indicated that, "in the face of a turbulent international landscape and high volatility" in the first half of the year, it has kept its monetary policy rate unchanged, while "macroprudential measures were adopted with the aim of strengthening financial stability," the note states.
Regarding this, the Monetary Board approved in June a set of measures aimed at facilitating credit to the productive sectors through financial intermediaries for an amount of 81,000 million pesos (more than 1,300 million dollars).
For its part, the monthly indicator of economic activity (IMAE) registered a year-on-year growth of 3.1% last May, which led the average accumulated growth to 2.6% during January-May and it is expected that in 2025 the Dominican economy will advance 3%.
In the first five months of the year, total exports registered a year-on-year growth of 9.8% and remittances increased by 11.9%.
In June, international reserves were around 14.7 billion dollars, equivalent to about 11% of the gross domestic product, and in the first five months of the year imports exceeded the metrics recommended by the International Monetary Fund.
