NewsWhore
03-17-2008, 03:30 PM
The foreign debt of the Dominican Republic has grown by 18.3% during the current Fernandez administration. This contrasts sharply with the first (1996-2000) Leonel Fernandez administration, which saw a -3.3% reduction in the nation's foreign debt. The current figure is US$7.542 billion, up from US$6.379 billion in 2004. The report from the Ministry of the Hacienda says that it was during PRD administrations when the foreign debt went up the most, with Hipolito Mejia increasing the debt by 73% and Antonio Guzman (1978-1982) increasing the debt by a whopping 166%. Of course, those were different times. Nowadays, according to Listin Diario, the debt is split between multinational financial organizations (32%), bilateral loans (38%), bond issues (23%), commercial banks (about 6%) and foreign suppliers (0.2%). The more than 70% of the debt with multinational or bilateral lenders is seen as a positive, since these loans are for longer periods of time at lower interest rates. According to the article in Listin Diario, the fact that the President controls the Congress has aided the approval of many loans that would have been stymied in the former PRD-controlled congress of 1996-2000.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)