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Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development of the Dominican Republic published its Sector overview by September 2024, showing strong growth in agricultural and manufacturing exports, but declines in transport, trade and tourism. Agricultural exports grew 36.9% from January to September compared to the previous year, driven by increased exports of cocoa to the United States and Belgium, raw tobacco to the United States, and eggs to Cuba. In September alone, the value of agricultural exports increased 43.6% year-on-year to 78.5 million dollars. Manufacturing exports from free zones increased 9.5% to RD$253,541.0 million, while local manufacturing exports grew 11.1% to RD$RD$58,189.4 million.
The transportation and commerce sectors suffered declines. The mobility index for land freight transportation fell by 6.9% and passenger transportation fell by 3.3%. Total transportation operations fell 7.7% year-on-year in September, reaching RD$16,849.9 million, with a drop of 2.5% in the January-September period. Commercial activity also contracted, with real operations that decreased 15.4% year-on-year in September and 5.3% in January-September, totaling RD$1,422,747.8 million.
Tourism showed mixed results. Arrivals of non-resident foreigners in September fell by 2.7%, 10,400 fewer tourists, to a total of 378,946 visitors. However, accumulated arrivals between January and September reached 5.4 million, which represents a year-on-year growth of 7.1%. American tourists represented 31.3% of non-resident visitors, followed by Colombians (8.7%) and Canadians (6.7%), among other nationalities. The data highlights areas of resilience and challenges within the Dominican economy.