NewsWhore
05-15-2007, 01:20 PM
Wall Street has responded positively to the Central Bank first quarter news on the economy. Franco Uccelli of Bear Stearns described the country's economic performance as "quite strong", mentioning the 23% growth in financial sector, 21% in communications, 17% in commerce and 13% in public utilities. Likewise, the brokerage firm highlights the fact that real GDP expanded by a higher-than-expected 9.1% during the quarter, prompting the Central Bank to revise its growth forecast for 2007 as a whole to between 8%-9%, compared with a 6% initial estimate.
Uccelli comments that "economic dynamism during the first three months of the year was also underpinned by a sizeable increase in bank credit to the private sector, which has climbed by 23% over the past year, as well as by a 19% rise in foreign direct investment and a 9.3% upsurge in remittances during the quarter. Increased capital inflows, for their part, strengthened the currency and boosted net international reserve levels (IMF methodology) by 16% to more than US$1.3 billion, an all-time high."
Furthermore, he comments that the Central Bank also noted that preliminary evidence indicates that the country's key fiscal targets for the first quarter have been comfortably met, due largely to higher-than-expected collection levels. "While valuation considerations recently caused us to tone down our recommendation on the Dominican Republic's foreign-currency-denominated bonds to marketperform, we believe that its strong fundamental performance suggests that the risk is on the upside," he concludes.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
Uccelli comments that "economic dynamism during the first three months of the year was also underpinned by a sizeable increase in bank credit to the private sector, which has climbed by 23% over the past year, as well as by a 19% rise in foreign direct investment and a 9.3% upsurge in remittances during the quarter. Increased capital inflows, for their part, strengthened the currency and boosted net international reserve levels (IMF methodology) by 16% to more than US$1.3 billion, an all-time high."
Furthermore, he comments that the Central Bank also noted that preliminary evidence indicates that the country's key fiscal targets for the first quarter have been comfortably met, due largely to higher-than-expected collection levels. "While valuation considerations recently caused us to tone down our recommendation on the Dominican Republic's foreign-currency-denominated bonds to marketperform, we believe that its strong fundamental performance suggests that the risk is on the upside," he concludes.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)