Dominican Republic´s ´big problem: inequality

Santo Domingo.- TheHerrera and Santo Domingo Province Industries Association (AEIH) on Monday calledthe return on equity of the workers’ pension fund compared with the Administrators’profits “a great asymmetry.”

AEIH president Antonio Taverassaid if there´s a sector which reveals the country´s inequity, it´s the PensionFund Administrators (AFP).

He said it´s unacceptablethat in 2015 the average AFP will earn 43.5% before taxes compared with 2014, whilethe workers funds´ nominal yield reached just 11.5%. "We´re facing thedramatic reality that the profitability of the workers funds represents only26.5% of profits received by the companies that manage their resources."

He said the profits at worker´expense is outrageous, which in his view expands poverty and is a detriment tobusiness competitiveness.

He said it´s regretful thatthe authorities fail to deal with those problems apparently "because ofthe power that certain groups that dominate finances which he says are the mosthighly concentrated among the Dominican economy."

The industry leader calledinequality the country´s “big problem,” with wealth concentrated in a few handsand a systematic erosion of real wages, plunging down to the levels of the 1990s.