PDA

View Full Version : Senate approves loans for US$118 million



NewsWhore
06-21-2012, 03:10 PM
The Senate of the Republic approved two loans totaling US$118 million yesterday, Wednesday June 20, which will be used to fight poverty and for building major roads. One of the loans, for US$80 million, from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will go towards the third phase of the Social Protection Program, and another, for US$38.5 million, negotiated with the United States Export and Import Bank, will be used to partially finance the Coral Highway.

According to Hoy newspaper, both loans were passed after the Senate received positive reports from the commissions that examined them. The loan from the IDB is aimed at helping young people from the poorest strata of society to achieve self-improvement through health, nutrition and education programs. The Coral Highway, considered to be of utmost importance for the country's tourism development, will connect Santo Domingo with the major tourist areas in the east of the island.

El Caribe reports today, 21 June, that the Dominican foreign debt has increased by 51% from December 2009 to May 2012, growing from US$8.2 billion to US$12.4 billion, according to statistics from the Department of Public Credit. The department says that in the first five months of the year, the foreign debt increased by US$786.2 million, or 6.76%. Global foreign debt, excluding the financial debt, closed in 2011 at US$16,593 million, and by May 2012 it had increased to US$17,401.8 million. Foreign debt now makes up 30.9% of the GDP. The newspaper points out that 10 years ago in December 2001, the foreign debt was US$4 billion, or 16.1% of GDP.

More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)