Economists Pavel Isa and Francisco Checo have criticized the government's insistence on using the percentage of foreign debt as an indicator of public debt for the Gross Domestic Product, saying it does not allow for determining the quality of the borrowing. The economists speculate that the government insists on doing this because it allows the government to reduce the real magnitude of the payment obligations. Isa told Listin Diario that the servicing of the internal debt should be measured in regard to tax collections, and the foreign debt needs to be analyzed in regard to the foreign exchange generated by the country during the year.
Economist Checo said that taking on debt can be advantageous if the resources are rationally invested. He said the problem is when governments use the funds for projects that do not contribute to real development.
Listin Diario reports that from 2004 to date the government has allocated RD$323,854 million to debt payment, of which RD$119,659 million has gone toward interest payments. This compares to the servicing of the debt from 1998 to 2003, when the government destined RD$57,921 billion, of which RD$19,013 million went to interest payments. The newspaper makes the point that the servicing of the debt from 2004-2009 grew 459%, equivalent to RD$265,932 million.
In a recent speech in Santiago, Central Bank Governor Hector Valdez Albizu said that as of September 2009 the debt was at US$11.4 billion.

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