NewsWhore
02-16-2012, 12:30 PM
Faced with the end of the Stand-by Agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund, with the seventh and eighth revisions still pending, the Dominican business sector has called on the authorities to refrain from using state resources for the election campaign. Manuel Diez Cabral, the president of the National Business Council (Conep), said that the distancing between the government and the IMF would not cause macro-economic problems, but he said that he was afraid of the use of the resources in favor of the ruling party's presidential candidate, Danilo Medina. "There is always this fear, with or without the IMF, I think we have been through campaigns with or without an agreement (with the IMF) the fear always exists, and this is not something that should happen," he said.
Meanwhile, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham), Julio Virgilio Brache, stated that the national economy has been growing at a very stable rate and therefore he believes that there is no reason to be alarmed at the break with the Stand-by Agreement, which was scheduled to end on 27 February anyway. Ligia Bonetti de Valiente said that the agreement with the International Monetary Fund implied a sort of discipline on spending and pushing for some reforms such as the one that has to do with the price of electric energy, corresponds with market prices "so that the subsidy is reduced and the burden that this implies on the government income tends to be reduced." She said that adjusting these (electricity) prices to the reality of the market is a process that should not continue to be put off indefinitely. "Of course we know that it is not popular to have your electricity rates increased, although there are some circumstances in which it could be lowered. Nonetheless, there we have the example of the fuels. This generates criticism, but the changing of prices every week has been accepted," she commented. "When we talk about prudence in the expenditures in the middle of the election campaign, we are not referring to one institution or another, but to all state institutions. The clearest signal of trustworthiness is that the election process is not what defines or guides where the public expenditures are spent," said Bonetti de Valiente. She said that the process that is taking place within the Second Dominican Industrial Congress is also dealing with issues such as this.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)
Meanwhile, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham), Julio Virgilio Brache, stated that the national economy has been growing at a very stable rate and therefore he believes that there is no reason to be alarmed at the break with the Stand-by Agreement, which was scheduled to end on 27 February anyway. Ligia Bonetti de Valiente said that the agreement with the International Monetary Fund implied a sort of discipline on spending and pushing for some reforms such as the one that has to do with the price of electric energy, corresponds with market prices "so that the subsidy is reduced and the burden that this implies on the government income tends to be reduced." She said that adjusting these (electricity) prices to the reality of the market is a process that should not continue to be put off indefinitely. "Of course we know that it is not popular to have your electricity rates increased, although there are some circumstances in which it could be lowered. Nonetheless, there we have the example of the fuels. This generates criticism, but the changing of prices every week has been accepted," she commented. "When we talk about prudence in the expenditures in the middle of the election campaign, we are not referring to one institution or another, but to all state institutions. The clearest signal of trustworthiness is that the election process is not what defines or guides where the public expenditures are spent," said Bonetti de Valiente. She said that the process that is taking place within the Second Dominican Industrial Congress is also dealing with issues such as this.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)