The economy is growing in Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo._ Governor of the Central Bank Frank Guerrero Prats said at the American Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon that the Dominican economy has grown 5% in the first two months of the year.

He attributed the growth to the recovery of the manufacturing sector, as reported in El Caribe newspaper. Mr. Guerrero forecasted that the year´s end growth for 2002 is estimated to be 4%, so the economy is right on target.

To his judgement, the economy is moving well because production has picked up at the key companies that were most affected by tax reform in January 2001, namely those making cigarettes, rum, beer, and steel rod and cement manufacturers.

Given these signs of recovery of the manufacturing sector, and the 26% increase in imports reported by Customs for January, he forecast that there will be a general upturn in the commerce and transport sectors. He also said that the communication, power and water sectors show levels of growth greater than those achieved in 2001.