NewsWhore
10-01-2008, 03:30 PM
Remittances, tourism, investments and exports could be affected by the US financial crunch, according to deans of economics from the UASD, INTEC, UNIBE and PUCMM universities. They urged the government to reduce its spending and give priority to local production, as reported in Listin Diario.
The deans said that the DR is vulnerable because of the marked dependence of the local economy on the US. The US is the primary source of remittances and tourists to the DR, as well as its leading trade partner.
Melvin Perez Sarraf, director of the UASD University's School of Economics, said that the DR economy benefits from the strict prudential regulations that were implemented in the banking system after the Baninter bank collapse in 2003. The country does not trade in stocks so it has not suffered from a stock market crash either.
Fabrizio Gomez Maara, coordinator of the School of Economics at INTEC Univesity advised the government to implement an austerity program, to reduce its spending and to back local production. He said the US financial crisis comes at a time when the DR is affected by a fiscal deficit of the current account of the balance of payments and a decline in the Central Bank's international net reserves.
Jose Paulino of the PUCMM University says that events in the US will affect the DR because the US is the country's largest trading partner. He forecast a decline in remittances because of job losses by Dominicans in the US and a decline in tourism, as middle class Americans who make up the most travelers to the DR may cut their travel plans.
Manuel Moises Ramirez of UNIBE University also believes that the situation will be felt in a reduction of remittances, tourism and foreign investment.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)
The deans said that the DR is vulnerable because of the marked dependence of the local economy on the US. The US is the primary source of remittances and tourists to the DR, as well as its leading trade partner.
Melvin Perez Sarraf, director of the UASD University's School of Economics, said that the DR economy benefits from the strict prudential regulations that were implemented in the banking system after the Baninter bank collapse in 2003. The country does not trade in stocks so it has not suffered from a stock market crash either.
Fabrizio Gomez Maara, coordinator of the School of Economics at INTEC Univesity advised the government to implement an austerity program, to reduce its spending and to back local production. He said the US financial crisis comes at a time when the DR is affected by a fiscal deficit of the current account of the balance of payments and a decline in the Central Bank's international net reserves.
Jose Paulino of the PUCMM University says that events in the US will affect the DR because the US is the country's largest trading partner. He forecast a decline in remittances because of job losses by Dominicans in the US and a decline in tourism, as middle class Americans who make up the most travelers to the DR may cut their travel plans.
Manuel Moises Ramirez of UNIBE University also believes that the situation will be felt in a reduction of remittances, tourism and foreign investment.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)