NewsWhore
10-01-2008, 03:30 PM
During his recent trip to the US, President Leonel Fernandez told audiences that the Dominican economy is "shielded" from the present US crisis. In today's Hoy newspaper Rosario Espinal of Temple University comments that the PetroCaribe oil agreement with Venezuela that enables the government to postpone payment of the oil bill for 25 years, remittances and foreign investments have helped the DR ride the present crisis. But she states that it is not true that the economy is "shielded."
Espinal writes that the effects of the crisis will be reduced if the US is able to overcome the present financial crisis without experiencing a strong economic recession. She comments that the remittances have a greater impact on the economy than large investments. She explained these trickle down to middle class and low-income Dominicans enabling them to cover their rising daily expenditures, and Dominicans who live overseas are investors in many of the DR's housing developments, with positive ripple effects on the economy. "The Dominican economy is shielded when three key factors may come to play," she writes. These are macro-economic stability, the flow of remittances and the oil subsidy. She states that if macroeconomic stability is maintained, the government will be able to place new Central Bank certificates of deposit, but that the Dominican government does not have any control over the last two key factors.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
Espinal writes that the effects of the crisis will be reduced if the US is able to overcome the present financial crisis without experiencing a strong economic recession. She comments that the remittances have a greater impact on the economy than large investments. She explained these trickle down to middle class and low-income Dominicans enabling them to cover their rising daily expenditures, and Dominicans who live overseas are investors in many of the DR's housing developments, with positive ripple effects on the economy. "The Dominican economy is shielded when three key factors may come to play," she writes. These are macro-economic stability, the flow of remittances and the oil subsidy. She states that if macroeconomic stability is maintained, the government will be able to place new Central Bank certificates of deposit, but that the Dominican government does not have any control over the last two key factors.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)