The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic published Governor Héctor Valdez Albizu’s 78th anniversary address, reviewing 2025 macro-financial conditions and summarising recent monetary, macroprudential and regulatory actions. It reported a 25 basis point cut in the monetary policy rate to 5.50% after being held unchanged for the first eight months of the year and described a Monetary Board liquidity programme of DOP81 billion, of which DOP66 billion has been channelled to support bank credit to households and businesses. Annual inflation was 3.76% in September (core 4.35%), staying within the 4.0% ± 1.0% target band for 29 months, while real GDP grew 2.2% in January to September 2025. Multiple banks’ weighted-average deposit and lending rates averaged 6.6% and 13.9%, respectively, in October 2025 (down from 10.3% and 15.3% in October 2024), and local-currency private credit was up about 9.0% year on year. The address cited January to September external inflows of USD11.6 billion in exports, about USD8.5 billion in tourism receipts, about USD8.9 billion in remittances and USD4.0 billion in foreign direct investment, alongside international reserves of USD13.3 billion at end-September (10.4% of GDP and almost five months of imports) and 2.3% accumulated peso depreciation through September. Financial system indicators cited included 11.5% asset growth, 1.9% non-performing loans, ROE of 21.7%, ROA of 2.6% (end-September) and regulatory solvency of 18.4% in June against a 10% minimum, while electronic payments averaged 3.3 million transactions per day in 2025 and the central bank’s real-time gross settlement system processed 33.2 million operations through September. Regulatory work referenced in the speech included fair-value (mark-to-market) valuation rules, foreign-currency lending standards for FX-generating and non-generating borrowers, public consultations on financial services user protection and operational risk regulations, updates to payments and securities settlement rules ahead of a new platform intended to enable 24/7 transfers with account credit in under 10 seconds, and foreign-exchange amendments requiring intermediaries to adhere to the Global FX Code, as well as approval of a draft law to regulate and supervise cooperatives conducting open financial intermediation. The outlook presented pointed to GDP growth of around 2.5% in 2025 and a return to 4.0% to 5.0% in 2026, with inflation remaining within target and foreign direct investment projected to exceed USD4.8 billion in 2025, covering a current account deficit expected at 2.5% of GDP.

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