Western Hemisphere > Dominica

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International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
A technical assistance (TA) mission on external sector statistics (ESS) was conducted to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Dominica as part of the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) work program on ESS. The mission focused on addressing data gaps and improving statistical techniques for travel exports and direct investment to enhance the accuracy of the balance of payments (BOP) and the international investment position (IIP) and reduce net errors and omissions. In addition, the revised 2023 BOP that will be disseminated in December 2023 was reviewed.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
The 2024 Article IV Consultation discusses that the Dominican economy has recovered strongly following the pandemic shock. Real gross domestic product grew by 5.6 percent in 2022 and an estimated 4.7 percent in 2023 returning to pre-pandemic output levels. Policy responses have eroded essential fiscal buffers, despite large Citizenship by Investment (CBI) revenues, which have supported reconstruction, infrastructure development, and climate adaptation. The country remains exposed to shocks, while tight fiscal space constrains development initiatives. The ongoing economic expansion provides an opportunity to rebuild essential buffers and reorient policies toward increasing prospects for more sustained and resilient growth. Dominica’s output has recovered to its pre-pandemic level, reflecting a rebound in tourism and public investment, supported by buoyant CBI revenues. Inflation has subsided from its 2022 peak, but external imbalances have deteriorated modestly. Banks remain well capitalized and liquid although credit unions suffer from persistent weak capital and asset quality. The outlook is subject to downside risks, especially from climate change, volatile tourism receipts, commodity prices, and CBI revenues. Meanwhile, longstanding impediments to private investment and employment weigh on growth and productivity. Policy priorities are to address fiscal and external imbalances while enhancing the basis for sustained and resilient growth.
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
A joint CARTAC, IMF capacity development engagement with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in the Ministry of Finance in Dominica to improve estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was undertaken. The capacity development focused on three main aspects: supporting improvements of the GDP series in line with the 2008 SNA standards, including training for re-referencing the volume estimates of GDP; identifying data holdings which could be used to improve the quality of the estimates; and developing a work program for improving the timeliness of macroeconomic statistics in Dominica. Administrative data including value added tax data was used to compliment survey based estimates to enhance the current price estimates of GDP. To identify potential other data sources, meetings with various government stakeholders took place to discuss accessibility of data to continue to improve the quality of the macroeconomic estimates in the future. In addition to re-referencing the volume estimates of GDP to 2018 prices (from the existing 2006 base year), refinements to the GDP compilation system were developed to increase the capacity development of the staff to maintain and update the compilation of macroeconomic statistics in the future.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
The 2024 Article IV Consultation with member countries on common policies of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) discusses that the economies have registered a strong recovery after successive external shocks. Fiscal and external balances have improved, but public debt and current account deficits remain high. The financial system has been stable and liquid, although it continues to be confronted with asset quality weaknesses and rising risks in the non-bank financial sector. Longstanding structural challenges affecting private investment and employment create a drag on growth going forward. The regional priority is to rebuild buffers while protecting the fiscal space for priority public investment and social spending. Social policies and institutional labor market reforms would help improve competitiveness by addressing structural constraints to employment and labor productivity. Concerted efforts to address gaps in core economic data improve transparency and strengthen resource capacity for data collection would support calibration of economic policies.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues paper on the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) focuses on efficient, sustainable, and fair pension schemes. Despite recent reform efforts, the financial sustainability of the ECCU’s defined benefit social security schemes remains under strain, largely reflecting the still relatively low contributions and generous payouts. This, coupled with a rapidly ageing population and high labor market informality, increases the need for a comprehensive review and adoption of further parametric and non-parametric reforms of the pension systems to avoid abrupt and more sizable adjustments in the future as well as to reduce the risks of old-age poverty. This annex reviews pension schemes in the ECCU, with a focus on assessing their design and performance and identifying policy options to improve their efficiency, fairness, and sustainability. Key recommendations include swift adoption of further comprehensive reforms to address design weaknesses, improving coverage, investment strategy, administrative efficiency, and transparency, and establishing automatic adjustment mechanisms.
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
This Technical Assistance report on Dominica focuses on external sector statistics. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) and the Central Statistics Office have implemented recommendations from the previous mission regarding timeliness and data accessibility. The mission focused on improving data sources for travel credits and the Citizenship by Investment Program (CBI) flows for the balance of payments. Revised 2022 balance of payments estimates were reviewed; additional refinement is needed. The ECCB has been incorporating available cash-based data on CBI flows from the fiscal sector into the balance of payments. However, fiscal data for 2021 and 2022 show some possible misclassifications that would affect the correct recording of external flows in the balance of payments. The report highlights that follow-up on the request made to the CBI to complete the ECCB balance of payments questionnaires for 2021 and 2022 and report on the existence of foreign escrow accounts. Coordination between data-producing agencies needs to be improved. A survey of cruise passengers is required to improve the estimates of visitor expenditure; visitors that arrive by yatchs are not surveyed either.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
The 2023 Article IV Consultation highlights that the Dominican economy is recovering strongly following the pandemic. Fiscal space remains tight. High Citizenship-by-Investment (CBI) revenue, nearing a record 30 percent of gross domestic product in recent years, has supported public investment and crisis response measures. The economic outlook is positive, predicated on a continued expansion in tourism and implementation of the country’s economic modernization and resilience building agenda The transition to local geothermal energy production and construction of a new airport, planned for the coming years, will sustain economic activity, reduce dependency on fossil fuels, bolster resilience to external shocks, and improve international connectivity. Meanwhile, public debt is set to decline gradually in coming years, supported by efforts to reduce current spending and strengthen tax collection. Building policy buffers and critical infrastructure will help address downside risks stemming from global economic uncertainty, climate change, and volatility of CBI revenue.
Emilio Fernández Corugedo
,
Andres Gonzalez
, and
Mr. Alejandro D Guerson
This paper presents a Markov switching dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model designed to evaluate the macroeconomic return of adaptation investment to natural disasters (NDs) and the impact of climate change. While the model follows the existing literature in assuming that NDs destroy a share of the public and private capital stocks and a government that can invest in adaptation at an additional cost, it adds several features that are key to the analysis, both in the near (transition) and long (steady state) terms. Those include incomplete markets, financial frictions with collateral constraints, foreign remittances, full menu of tax and government spending instruments, and endogenous climate risk premium. The model is calibrated to the case of Dominica. It finds that NDs have large and persistent negative effects on output and public finances. It also shows that adaptation investment has large returns in terms of private investment, employment, output and tax revenue in the long term, especially under climate change.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
Growth decelerated marginally in 2017, as the continued decline in CBI inflows slowed growth in construction. Consumer inflation was low, partly due to a small contraction in food prices. The overall fiscal balance remained in surplus but has deteriorated markedly since its 2013- peak, and the debt-to-GDP ratio increased marginally from the previous year. The current account deficit remains high and only marginally declined in 2017, as the decline in CBI receipts was more than offset by growing tourism receipts and a significant decrease in imports. Foreign reserves at the ECCB remained at comfortable levels, well above the various reserve-adequacy metrics. The banking sector has reported capital and liquidity ratios that are well above the regulatory minimum but has elevated NPLs and risks, including delays in completing the debt-land swap arrangement and loss of Corresponding Banking Relationships (CBRs).
Mr. Serhan Cevik
Global warming is the most significant threat to ecosystems and people’s health and living standards, especially in small island states in the Caribbean and elsewhere. This paper contributes to the debate by analyzing different options to scale up climate change mitigation and adaptation. In particular, the empirical analysis indicates that increasing energy efficiency and reducing the use of fossil fuel in electricity generation could lead to a significant reduction in carbon emissions, while investing in physical and financial resilience would yield long-run benefits. From a risk-reward perspective, the advantages of reducing the risks associated with climate change and the health benefits from higher environmental quality clearly outweigh the potential cost of climate change mitigation and adaptation in the short run. The additional revenue generated by environmental taxes could be used to compensate the most vulnerable households, building a multilayered safety net, and strengthening structural resilience.