Dominican Republic: Economy shows robust growth in 2015

According to preliminary data from the Central Bank, the economy grew 7.0% in 2015, which was a slight deceleration over the 7.3% increase tallied in the previous year but marked the second-best reading in the last five years.

Last year’s expansion was mainly driven by impressive growth in the construction sector, which increased 18.2%. The figure was up from the 13.8% rise observed in the previous year. In addition, growth in the service sector, which represents more than half of the country’s GDP, accelerated from 5.7% in 2014 to 6.3% in 2015. Conversely, the agricultural sector decelerated from a 4.4% increase in 2014 to a 1.0% rise in 2015.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast participants see the economy growing 5.1% in 2016, which is unchanged from last month’s forecast. For 2017, panelists expect the economy to expand 4.3%.