Foreign Investment Keeps Pushing Dominican Republic´s Growth

According to the new 2006 outlook for the Dominican economy, all indicators point to a sustained growth during the year. The outlook is positive in several areas of its principal macro-economic indicators.

Above all, the unemployment rate, that is expected to reach just 15.6 percent by the end of 2006. However, the authorities have opted to embark on the new course of the GDP with a lot of caution, and are working on goals as set out by the IMF of a GDP growth of just 5.5 percent.

Some projections are pegging the GDP growth for 2006 in double-digit level if oil prices stabilize on the world markets.

To that end, leading economic players on the inside of the Dominican economy are pinning their hopes on an economic stability that will lure some capital back from overseas and, at the same time, an increase in foreign investments, which grew by 18.5 percent in 2005 and are expected to climb by 22 percent with all the new projects in the pipeline.