The estimates of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic expect a 5% and 5.5% growth by the end of 2021.

“We have come out of the negative ballast. We are riding a train that is moving forward with great vigor. The GDP will continue to grow in the remainder of the year. We had said that after the first quarter it was that we were going to start to have momentum, but we are surprised that this has started in February. This already changes the whole panorama in terms of what is expected”, declared Héctor Valdez Albizu, governor of the Central Bank.

However, it will not be until 2023 when the sector manages to recover the level prior to COVID-19 when more than 6 million non-resident foreigners arrived in the country, according to data published by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.

Tourist activity in the Dominican Republic began to recover lost ground in 2020, as a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and it is expected that one million more visitors will arrive in national destinations in 2021 than the previous year.

The official projected that for this year national tourist destinations will receive between 3.4 million and 3.5 million, non-resident visitors, although he clarified that, if the situation caused by the pandemic does not normalize abroad, it will be more difficult for the country to recover the level. previous.

“No one stops tourism from here, neither the good nor the bad. This is the country that has the best-organized tourism in all of Latin America. I have faith that tourism will regain its position that it lost due to the pandemic ”, said  Valdez Albizu.

When presenting preliminary data on the behavior of economic activity in February, he highlighted that tourism activity, in times of stability, generates 7.4 billion dollars in income for the country.

1.1% growth in February

Valdez Albizu reported that economic activity in the country registered a growth of 1.1% last February, placing economic performance in positive territory for the first time since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

The sectors that most affected the recovery of the economy in February were construction, which showed a growth of 10.3%; mining, with 8.1%; local manufacturing, 6.5%; health, with an expansion of 6.4%; real estate activities, 2.2%; commerce, 4.1%; and agriculture, 1.4%.

“The economic performance of February continues to be influenced by the monetary stimuli carried out by the Central Bank, granting 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (RD $ 215,814 million that have been made available to the public through banks), placing RD $ 184,180.4 million ”, he highlighted.