Economy
According to abbreviationfinder, the Dominican Republic is a middle-income developing country, depending mainly on agriculture, commerce, services, and especially tourism. It has the second largest economy (according to the United States Department of State) in Central America and Caribbean. [16] Although the service sector has overtaken agriculture as the main provider of jobs, agriculture still remains the most important sector in terms of domestic consumption, and is second (behind mining) in terms of exports. . Free Zones and tourism are the fastest growing sectors. Its main income comes from remittances from Dominicans in the United States.
According to the National Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2005, the country is ranked # 71 in the world in availability of resources, the # 79 for human development, and # 14 in the world for mismanagement of resources. These statistics emphasize government corruption, foreign interference in the country’s economy. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Dominican Republic has been one of the countries with the highest economic growth in Latin America, in recent decades, the current model has been exclusive, deepening social and economic inequality, widening the gap that separates the rich from the poor, states the document “, indicates the Dominican Labor Party. [17]
Since 2005, the Dominican Republic has participated in the Petrocaribe energy agreement, through which several countries in the region can purchase oil and derivatives from Venezuela under favorable conditions. On May 5, an economic complementation agreement was signed in the company Refidomsa, with the acquisition of 49% of the shares of said refinery by PDV Caribe.
Currency
The national currency of the Dominican Republic is the Dominican peso. Its symbol is RD $ and it is divided into one hundred equal parts called cents. According to the Constitution of the country, the issuance of the national currency is the responsibility of a single and autonomous issuing entity, the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, whose capital corresponds exclusively to the Dominican State. Although the US dollar (USD) and the euro (EUR) are also accepted in the most touristy places, the US dollar is involved in almost all commercial transactions in the Dominican Republic.
Demography
The country’s population is dominated by mestizo descendants of Europeans, Africans, and indigenous people. See population of Dominican Republic.
For the year 2007, the United Nations estimated the Dominican population at 9,760,000, ranking 82nd in population among the 193 nations of the world belonging to the entity. The Dominican government estimated that the population density in 2007 was 192 per km², and 63% of the population lived in urban areas. [18]
Most of the population is made up of a mixture of Spanish and African descendants. According to a study conducted by the CUNY Institute for Dominican Studies, about 90% of the contemporary Dominican population has West African ancestry to varying degrees. [19] However, most Dominicans do not self-identify as black, in contrast to people of West African descent in other countries. This is because the Dominican population is mostly mulatto, however the black minority does identify as such. In other Latin American countries, such as Cuba [20] , Colombia [21] , Haiti [22] , Panama [23] ; in addition to other countries in the world such as South Africa [24] , Nigeria [25] , Angola [26] , Cape Verde [27] among others; mulattoes are usually identified by their mixture and are distinguished from blacks. For example, Cuban mulattoes are identified as mulattoes, those from South Africa are called coloreds while those from Nigeria are half-caste. It should also be taken into account that in Latin America, the mestizos of the Spanish and indigenous mixture have their own identity as mestizos and this right to identify with their racial reality is not suppressed in favor of adopting an indigenous identity. The same thing happens with the mestizos of the Spanish and African mixture, that is, the Mulatos. A variety of terms are used to represent a range of skin tones, such as tan, tan, Indian, dark-white, and brunette.
Several genetic studies have been done in which the origins of the Dominicans have been identified. Genetic studies carried out by Dr. Juan Carlos Martínez-Cruzado, head of the Department of Biology at the University of Puerto Rico, concluded that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) consisted on average of 70% African genes, 15% of indigenous origin and 15% Eurasian. [28] These results only document the origins by the maternal line and ignore the origins by the paternal line, however the miscegenation in America occurred mainly between European men, essentially Spanish, with indigenous or African women.
In another study by Dr. Juan Carlos Martínez-Cruzado, Guanche genes from the Canary Islands have been found in the Dominican population. [29] In 1854, the Spaniard Don Mariano Torrentes, based on his visit to the country, estimated the Dominican population at 150,000 of which 70,000 (47%) were white and 80,000 (53%) people of color (mulatto) and black. [30] Considering the low rejection towards racial mixing, since then the population has become mulatto until it becomes a predominantly mulatto society with minorities of whites and blacks.
The genetic study, based on the blood contributions, of Dr. José de Jesús Álvarez Perelló estimated that the genome of the average Dominican has 43% African contribution, 40% Spanish contribution and 17% indigenous contribution. [31] This indicates that the Dominican has practically the same black and white contribution plus a lower contribution, although significant, of indigenous origin. It also clarifies that in the plains and cities the white element increases in the average mixture, in sugarcane areas (Puerto Plata, San Pedro, La Romana, Barahona, etc.) the black contribution increases and in mountainous and isolated areas the indigenous contribution increases..
DNATribes has compiled the results of various genetic tests from different populations. According to the genetic results of the Dominicans, DNATribes shows that the genes of the average Dominican originate in 41.8% in Europe and 35.2% in Africa. In other words, 77% of the genes in the average Dominican are of Euro-African origin and the remaining 23% of their genes originate elsewhere such as the Middle East and America. The contribution from the Middle East is presumed to be of Moorish origin and was introduced to the island in the Spanish migrations while the contribution of American origin is presumed to be Taíno.
