The reopening of the economy begins; in March, activity declined 9.4%

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - In Brief 18 May 2020 by Pavel Isa

---

Last night, President Medina announced the beginning of the reopening of the economy and signed a decree reducing the curfew hours, which will now start at 7pm (instead of 5pm) and end at 5am (instead of at 6 am). The announcement of the start of reopening came two days after the Central Bank reported that in March economic activity contracted by 9.4% and that in Q1 growth was 0.0%. The reopening program has four phases. Each of them should last no less than fourteen days and will go to the next phase depending on the results of the previous one. Phase 1 begins on Wednesday, May 20 with the authorization for businesses to operate with part of their staff and under general and specific health security protocols. The smallest are authorized to open with up to 5 employees and the rest can open with 25% to 50% of their employees. Public institutions will start operating with 50% of their staff. Only state-owned transportation is authorized to operate and opening hours for businesses were set at different times by sector. Education activities in classrooms, entertainment spaces such as cinemas, parks, hotels, and restaurants are prohibited (except delivery and take-out services). For the time being, the borders will remain closed for passenger traffic. In phase 2, companies will be able to operate with 100% of their staff. In addition, it announced the extension of social compensation programs (FASE and Quédate en Casa -Stay at Home-) for one more month, greater flexibility in those programs to accommodate more businesses and people and announced a new program called Pa 'ti (For you) seeking to protect independent workers.