Economy & Business - April 2007

Venezuela finances 40% of the cost of the oil the Dominican Republic imports from Venezuela with cheap 25 year loans. Bengoa said that it was also to the Dominican Republic's advantage that Venezuela will take payment for some of the oil in goods and services. The goods Venezuela most likes to buy are beans while the services it takes are most often are hotel rooms. 

Bengoa said that without Venezuela's generosity and the US$2.75bn that Dominicans working abroad sent back in 2006, the country's economic predicament would be parlous. Bengoa said over the 11 years from 1995 to 2006, remittances had come to US$20.6bn which was 10 times what the country had got from multilaterals such as the IMF, the World Bank and the IDB. The government hopes that remittances will rise to US$3bn in 2007. 

Trade unions announced a week of action in mid-April to back their claim for higher pay. They are threatening to hold a general strike on 2 May to back their demand. They rejected the employers offer to increase private sector wages by 12.5% as a joke and say they want a 30% increase for everyone. 

The employers say that legally they are only obliged to increase the minimum wage, which stands at US$190 a month for the bulk of its recipients. On 11 April congress approved a measure giving a 25% increase to everyone who was earning less than DR$100,000 (S$3,030). 

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