
Dominican Republic
Being a geographically diverse country with rugged highlands and mountains infused with fertile valleys, the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti (eastern two-thirds makes up the Dominican Republic, western one-third is Haiti) and it is the second largest country in the Antilles, after Cuba.
It is home to the Caribbean's tallest mountain (Pico Duarte) and largest lake (Lago Enriquillo) and it also has the region's lowest elevation point.
The economy of the Dominican Republic is highly dependent upon the US, the destination for approximately half of exports and the source of 40% of imports. Remittances from the US amount to about 7% of GDP, equivalent to about a third of exports and two-thirds of tourism receipts. The Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement came into force in March 2007, boosting investment and manufacturing exports.
Chapter 1: Economic and business environment
Demographics | population of 11.1 million (2022) |
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Capital | Santo Domingo |
Major cities | 1. Santo Domingo (2.2 million people) |
Languages | Spanish |
GDP | US$94.2 billion (2021), up 20% year-over-year |
Unemployment rate | 5.2% (July 2022) |
Main industries | tourism, sugar processing, gold mining, textiles, cement, tobacco, electrical components, medical devices |
Currency | Dominican peso |
Interest rate | 8.5% (November 2022) source: Trading Economics |
Fleet Maturity Index (scaling) | Approximately 11% of the cars in the country are five years or less. The remaining 89% are older. |
Inflation | 8.6% (September 2022) |
Chapter 2 : Automotive market, segments & sales
Total Car park | 4.35 million vehicles in 2019. at least half, or more than 2 million, are seen to be motorcycles. (source: DGII) |
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New vehicle registrations (Cars, LCV, Trucks) | In 2019, light vehicles sales rose 6% to 21,810 units from 21,300 (source: OICA) |
Top 5 brands (total market) | 2018 source: Autodato |
Model preference top 5 (total market) | As for subcompact cars, Hyundai i10 (hatchback & sedan), Toyota Agya, and Kia Picanto are popular. As for SUVs, Hyundai Tucson and Toyota RAV4 are good sellers. |
Used car market/renewal cycle | However, there are older cars are being imported into the country. By law, only vehicles that are less than five years old can be brought into the country. Nevertheless, according to IDB figures, at least twice the number of second-hand vehicles are imported into the country than new vehicles. Some reports say nearly three times more. Nearly 33,000 used cars were imported in 2018 (source: Autodato) |
Chapter 3: Company car market
Evolution fleet sales (last 5 years) | In 2019, commercial vehicles sales rose 54% to 9,204 units from 5,960 (source: OICA) |
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Chapter 4: Taxation & legislation
In 2018, some 84% of the population paid their vehicle circulation tax
In 2019, about 87% paid.
Labour regulations applying to commercial drivers are set out in Decree No. 25893 of 1 October 1993, which establishes that drivers must not drive for more than 10 hours per day or 70 hours per week. They also must not drive for more than 5 consecutive hours, and resting times between driving hours must not be less than 1 hour and 30 minutes. These regulations are fully applicable to international transport as well but do not cover the monitoring systems (tachographs) to be used or their installation, verification, technical servicing or maintenance.
Chapter 5: Car policies
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