The Dominican Diaspora Responsible for 8% of the GDP in the First Semester of the Year

The Dominican community living abroad contributed $59,693.8 billion dollars to the country´s economy during the first semester of 2008 through monetary remittances and money spent on touristic visits. This amount represents 8% of the country´s Gross National Product (GDP), according to a report issued by the Quisqueya Foundation.

The remittances were over $1.559 billion dollars and the amount spent by Dominicans visiting home for the same period of time mentioned above was $196.5 million dollars.

Economists Frank Valenzuela and Héctor Frías, President and Executive Director of the Quisqueya Foundation, affirmed that this data given to them from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic and represents preliminary results of the Dominican economy from January to June of this year.

The remittances were over $1.559 billion dollars and the amount spent by Dominicans visiting home for the same period of time mentioned above was $196.5 million dollars. This data does not include the amount of money spent on phone calls, flights into the country and the purchase of souvenirs made in the Dominican Republic, “which without a doubt significantly increases our contribution to the Dominican economy,¨ said the economists.

Despite the fact that, in absolute terms, there has been an increase in remittances of more than $81.9 million dollars at this same time last year, in relative terms the actual growth dropped by more than 12% in 2007 to 5% in June of this year. In addition, this growth was less than the yearly average of the last 10 years, during which time support from the Dominican Diaspora has continued a steady growth rate of 10% annually.

This diminution, according to the Quisqueya Foundation analysts, is the result of a decline in growth of family remissions which, while they increased in absolute terms, the relative growth rate of the remissions dropped by more than 14% in the first semester of 2007 to 6.6% in the January to June period of 2008.