Santo Domingo.- The Dominican economy continues sending clear signals of recovery, with increased revenues in June, stability of the dollar's rate and the increase of the loans portfolio, which already surpasses RD$10.9 billion in the first five months this year. 

The commercial banks still have nearly 10 billion pesos to finance small and medians companies, the construction of low income homes, farm production and other sectors which greatly impact the population. 

The series of measures the monetary authorities adopted have made the expansion of credit possible, aimed at making more flexible the policies implemented in the last few years. 

These new dispositions have reverted the credit portfolio's downward trend in the intermediation institutions, expanded to RD$10.9 billion in the second quarter. 

During the first months it fell to RD$8.5 billion, situation which has been already surpassed in the second quarter, with the advantage that the active and passive interest rates have fallen 7.17 and 5.67 points, respectively. 

The authorities project revenue estimates to match collections by the end of July, which explains the latest increases reported by the Internal Taxes and Customs agencies. 

The economy's reactivation is on par with the national banks' effort to place the funds available, which has led to the country's recovery from the fall of private credit, resulting from the global economic crisis. 

The Central Bank reduced the legal balance, which in turn allowed the banks to increase their funds to RD$19.7 billion, which are being channeled to mainly to construction, farms and micro, small and medium companies. 

Wage increase 

A positive measure last week was the retroactive increase of 15% in the monthly wages of workers who earn up to RD$4,485, RD$5,060 and RD$7,360. 

DominicanToday.com, 13 July 2009
http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/economy/2009/7/13/32578/Dominican-economy-continues-sending-clear-recovery-signals