Confirmed: NFPS deficit reached 3.2% of GDP, 0.9% off-target

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - In Brief 12 Mar 2018 by Pavel Isa

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The Central Bank and the budget office have finally published, and almost simultaneously, the figures of the budget result for 2017. The Central Bank published figures for the Central Government, for the decentralized and autonomous institutions, for the Non-Financial Public Sector (NFPS) and for the Consolidated Public Sector. For its part, the budget office published the figures for the Central Government. As we had anticipated, according to the Central Bank, the deficit of the Non-Financial Public Sector reached DOP 115.1 bn or 3.2% of GDP, that of the Central Government DOP 108.9 bn or 3.0% of GDP, and that of the autonomous and decentralized entities DOP 6.2 bn or 0.2% of GDP. The target set in the budget law for the NFPS deficit was 2.3% of GDP, so the deficit ended quite out of target, with a deviation equivalent to 0.9% of GDP. The deficit for the consolidated public sector was DOP 159.5 bn or 4.45% of GDP. For its part, the budget office reported that the Central Government deficit reached DOP 77 bn, equivalent to 2.1% of GDP. However, these figures do not consider "expenditures related to calamities", that is, those derived from the damages caused by the rains left by Hurricanes Irma and María in September, mostly devoted to rebuilding or repairing damaged infrastructure. The law authorizes this office to separate them from the ordinary report of the government's fiscal balance. It also did not include the resources left to pay to the Central Bank (recapitalization) of almost DOP 30 bn to finance the Punta Catalina coal plants project. Calamity expenses amounted to DOP 11.5 bn and investment in Punta Catalina was DOP 29.5 bn. The sum of both items reaches the...