The eastern half of the island of Hispaniola, occupied by the Dominican Republic, is rocky in the west and center, with wide marshes dominating the southeast.
The Dominican Republic is home to four major mountain ranges, the hardest of which is the Cordillera Central, which is the highest and broadest. It includes the highest point in the country, Pico Duarte, as well as the most notable point in the Caribbean. There are a few peaks higher than 5,000 feet.
With a GDP growth rate of 7% in 2018, the Dominican Republic’s economy outperformed its neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean, continuing its strong upward trend over the previous five years. One of the pillars of the Dominican economy, the travel sector, continued to shine in 2018 with a record 7.22 million visitors (indicating a 5.8% increase over 2017).
Even if the government may not be able to reach its goal of 10 million visitors by 2020 with these numbers, the region has generated up to US$7.6 billion in revenue. The most recent interests in the travel industry framework have been focused on both opulent hotels and resorts as well as excellent private initiatives, even if new, unfamiliar interest in the foundation is still emerging around the country. Although the region must continue to be a strong pillar of the country’s economy, it faced traffic bottlenecks for the whole of 2019.
The increase in external debt was mostly caused by sovereign bond offerings, which are now the country’s standard source of both local and universal funding. Dominican securities continue to be quite popular in international markets and have evolved into the government of the Dominican Republic’s preferred tool for fulfilling its external obligations. The DR government has issued and received US$13.8 billion in bonds over the last six years.
By all accounts, both the public and private sectors are in agreement that the DR requires a significant financial transformation in order to increase earnings and decrease the financial deficit. Expanding earnings through direct charges (e.g., annual expense) is a challenging task, given the high casualty share of private businesses and activities in the DR (estimated at 60%). President Medina’s organization has been reluctant to increase payor utilization burdens because he implemented an imperfect financial adjustment at the start of his first term (2013), and this hesitation will persist as the 2020 elections draw near. Modernizing the Tax Agency (DGII) with the goal of enhancing expense assortment and taking avoidance seriously has been one of the government’s primary objectives.