Santo Domingo.- The Dominican peso lost 5.5% of its value in relation to the dollar, a slide in  the exchange parity which has accelerated since March 2008, when the crisis in the United States had already become recession, newspaper Clave Digital reports.

“I don’t believe that the government intends to accelerate a devaluation, it can have an intention of preventing the exchange rate from widening even further,” said the economist Pavel Isa, regarding his evaluation of the movements of the currency market.

According to the Central Bank’s average rate, the dollar’s exchange parity went from 34.04 pesos the sale at the end of March last year to 35.91 pesos yesterday Tuesday, a devaluation of 5.5 percent.

Just this year, the peso depreciated 1.48 percent against the dollar, going from 35.38 pesos the sale, when operations began on January 2, to 35.91 pesos.

Commercial banks however, including the State-owned Reservas (Banreservas) already sell the dollar for more than 36 pesos. On Monday the bank Popular sold dollars at 36.05 pesos; the Leon at 36.15 and Banreservas at 36.00 pesos, whereas the Dominican Electronic Market (MED) said a dollar sold for 35.75 pesos.

Isa said the slide responds to “normal” pressures that occur when there are “inflation differentials.”

He said amid the international financial crisis the Central Bank’s measure of preventing the peso from becoming overvalued or devalued against the dollar is correct, because it neutralizes the effect increased oil prices have on the exchange rate, through a policy of the contraction of imports.

With the currency’s permanent slide, a much stronger devaluation of the peso is avoided, the economist said. “From 2005 to 2008 we’ve had quite a low exchange rate, below what could be a suitable level to sustain a very high import level.”

He said between 2005 and 2008 the exchange control was “exaggerated,” which brought about an untenable increase in imports, which brought with it a higher foreign debt.

Since March, 2005, after the peso had recovered from the devaluation sparked by the discovery of the Baninter bank fraud, the peso has depreciated 25.59 percent, according to the Central Bank’s average rate, going from 28.59 pesos per dollar to 35.91.

Moreover, whereas the peso depreciated only 1.08 percent against the dollar in 2007, the devaluation began to accelerate in 2008 and brought about a fall of 5.14 percent.