The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) reported that remittances increased by 31.3% in the first two months of 2021 to US $ 1,553.8 million, up by US $ 370.7 million. than those received in the same period of 2020. .
Specifically, the month of January registered year-over-year growth of US $ 206.0 million, 35.1%, to US $ 792.8 million. February added US $ 761.0 million for an increase of 27.6%, an additional US $ 164.7 million, helping the country to receive foreign exchange earnings of US $ 1,553.8 million between the two months.
The Central Bank explained that the ongoing recovery in economic conditions in the United States, the country where 84.6% of flows came from in February, remains the main factor influencing remittance behavior.
“Evidence of this recovery in the North American economy can be found in the employment figures, which indicate the creation of 379,000 jobs at the end of February, bringing the unemployment rate to 6.2%, from 6.7% in December. . In particular, unemployment among Hispanics in the United States fell from 9.3% in December 2020 to 8.5% in February 2021, ”the financial entity said in a press release.
This improvement in the flow of foreign currency, together with the Central Bank’s participation in the foreign exchange market through its electronic foreign exchange trading platform, has allowed the relative stability of the exchange rate to be maintained in recent months, in such a way that in According to the entity, the exchange rate increased by 0.6% in February compared to December 2020.
The Central Bank reported that this has also enabled the accumulation of international reserves of about US $ 12,000 million, about 15% of GDP, which corresponds to more than seven months of imports, higher than the measures recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).).