SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) – The new president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, warned when he assumed on Sunday that the country faces serious demanding situations similar to a declining economy and a coronavirus pandemic that has caused more than 1,450 deaths in the little one.Caribbean country.
“The recovery will come temporarily or easily,” the 53-year-old economist said in his first speech to Congress, highlighting the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic in tourism, the country’s main economic engine, and exports.
He lamented that public debt has doubled in the last decade and that the fiscal deficit has reached historic levels.
“Never has a government faced such a demanding mix of situations and threats,” he told lawmakers and guests, Haiti’s neighboring president, Jovenel Moise, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a speech.
Abinader won the presidential election last month as an opposition candidate, ending years of government of the Dominican Liberation Party (LDP).
The Modern Revolutionary Party of Abinader (PRM) also won 18 of the 32 seats in the Senate and 92 of the 190 seats in the confined space of the Congress.
Reporting through Ezequiel Abiu Lopez; Edited through Daina Beth Solomon and Peter Cooney
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