President Leonel Fernandez estimates the Dominican economy could grow as much as 3 percent this year. (Photo: Dominican President's Office)
Some companies are seeing steady demand in construction work in Santo Domingo. (Photo: Dominican Tourism Ministry)
The Dominican Republic is starting to see signs of recovery, leading to more optimism among local and foreign investors.
BY JOACHIM BAMRUD
SANTO DOMINGO — The Dominican Republic, the largest economy in the CAFTA trade group, is seeing signs of recovery.
Osvaldo Oller, a director of the Oller Group, sees real estate in tourism areas like Punta Cana, Puerto Plata and Samana picking up after months of low or no demand. ”There’s a noticeable improvement,” he says. The Oller Group is involved in real estate, construction and tourism.
Foreign investors are also becoming more upbeat, thanks to recent official statements that GDP grew by 1.4 percent in the first half. “Prompted by the first half’s positive reading, which we view as a true testament to Dominican Republic’s resilience, we are raising our full-year growth forecast for 2009 to 2.0 percent,” JP Morgan analyst Franco Uccelli said in a commentary last week. Although lower than official estimates, that clearly marks an improvement over JP Morgan’s earlier estimate of zero growth.
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