Inflation in the Dominican Republic decreased by 0.16% in July

Santo Domingo.- The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic reported this Tuesday that the year-on-year inflation stood at 3.40% last July, which, when compared to the 3.56% observed at the end of June, resulted in a decrease of 0.16 percentage points. Regarding monthly inflation, the country recorded an increase of 0.38%, which keeps it within the target range of 4.0% ± 1.0% for the last 27 months and is among the lowest of the non-dollarized economies in Latin America.

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The issuing body’s report indicated that, regarding monthly underlying inflation, it was 0.30% in July, with the year-on-year rate at 4.19%, also within the 4.0% ± 1.0% target. This indicator allows for the extraction of clearer signals for the conduct of monetary policy, because it excludes some items that do not normally respond to liquidity conditions in the economy, such as food with high price variability, fuels and services with regulated prices like electricity rates, transportation, as well as alcoholic beverages and tobacco. The agency’s report specified that the consumer price index (CPI) of tradable goods experienced a variation of 0.39% in July, generated mainly by price increases in liquefied gas for domestic use and for vehicles, some food products, tourist packages and automobiles. Regarding the monthly variation of the index of non-tradable goods and services, it stood at 0.37%. The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, acknowledged at the end of July that the Dominican economy has experienced a slowdown. “We went from growing 5% to 2.7 or 3%, which is what we are accumulating (…) and I know that the population is feeling it, the decrease in economic growth,” said the ruler during a meeting with the media on July 28.