Exports to the US fall 20.8%

[NewsWhore]

Congressional economic advisor Henri Hebrard reported yesterday that Dominican exports to the US fell by about 21% in the first two months of the year and the arrival of tourists from the US fell by 8.6%. Hebrard told Diario Libre that exports to the US went from US$585.6 million last year to US$464 million this year. A total of 278,620 tourists from the US visited the DR up to March this year, while last year the total for the first quarter was 304,747. He said that these falls in exports and tourism are caused by the economic contraction affecting the US and referred to the fact that the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimates that US GDP for the first quarter will show a 6.1% decline. The president of the Dominican Exporters Association (ADOEXPO) said recently that until the US economy starts to show signs of recovery, demand for Dominican exports would continue to fall. In Hebrard's judgment, this fall in the US GDP as measured by the BEA (6.1%) exceeds expectations of the analysts who were predicting a 4.1% contraction between January and March this year. He referred to this figure as very similar to the strong fall that was registered in the last quarter of 2008, 6.3%. Hebrard said that this is the first time since 1974-1975 that the US has registered three consecutive quarters of negative growth resulting from the drastic reduction of inventories and the close to 30% fall in exports.

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