Overview: Rapid growth of free trade zones has led to a substantial expansion of manufacturing for export, especially of wearing apparel. Over the past decade, tourism has also increased in importance and is a major earner of foreign exchange and a source of new jobs. Agriculture remains a key sector of the economy. The principal commercial crop is sugarcane, followed by coffee, cotton, cocoa, and tobacco. Domestic industry is based on the processing of agricultural products, oil refining, minerals, and chemicals. Unemployment is officially reported at about 30%, but there is considerable underemployment. Growth fell to a moderate 3% in 1993 because of power shortages in industry and political uncertainty which slowed down foreign investment.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $23 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: 3% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $3,000 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 8% (1993 est.)

Unemployment rate: 30% (1993 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $1.4 billion
expenditures: $1.8 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1993 est.)

Exports: $769 million (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities: ferronickel, sugar, gold, coffee, cocoa
partners: US 56%, EC 22%, Puerto Rico 8% (1991)

Imports: $2.2 billion (c.i.f., 1993 est.)
commodities: foodstuffs, petroleum, cotton and fabrics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals
partners: US 50%

External debt: $4.7 billion (1993 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate -0.1% (1991); accounts for 14% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 2,283,000 kW
production: 5 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 660 kWh (1992)

Industries: tourism, sugar processing, ferronickel and gold mining, textiles, cement, tobacco

Agriculture: accounts for 18% of GDP and employs 49% of labor force; sugarcane is the most important commercial crop, followed by coffee, cotton, cocoa, and tobacco; food crops - rice, beans, potatoes, corn, bananas; animal output - cattle, hogs, dairy products, meat, eggs; not self-sufficient in food

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the US and Europe

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY85-89), $575 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $655 million

Currency: 1 Dominican peso (RD$) = 100 centavos
Exchange rates: Dominican pesos (RD$) per US$1 - 12.841 (January 1994), 12.679 (1993), 12.774 (1992), 12.692 (1991), 8.525 (1990), 6.340 (1989)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Dominican Republic on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Dominican Republic Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Dominican Republic Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.