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The Dominican government announced that the country’s overall monetary poverty rate has decreased to 15.4% in the first quarter of 2026, down 2.6 percentage points from the 18.1% recorded during the same period in 2025, Dominican Today reported on Friday, May 29, 2026.
The Dominican government announced that the country’s overall monetary poverty rate has decreased to 15.4% in the first quarter of 2026, a drop of 2.6 percentage points compared to the 18.1% recorded in the same period in 2025, Dominican Today reported on Friday, May 29, 2026.
According to preliminary figures published by the Ministry of Finance and Economy of the Dominican Republic and validated by the National Statistics Institute (ONE) and the country’s Central Bank, this decline in poverty is linked to economic growth and rising labor incomes.
The country’s Monthly Economic Activity Indicator (IMAE) recorded a cumulative growth of 4.1% during this period, the Dominican Today article continued.The Dominican authorities also attributed this improvement to the increases in sectoral and non-sectoral minimum wages implemented between April 2025 and February 2026, which benefited low-income households. The report indicates that the growth in labor income contributed 3.74 percentage points to the reduction of poverty, thereby helping to offset the effects of inflation.
Despite these advances, the bulletin highlights the persistent disparities between urban and rural areas. The monetary poverty rate in rural areas stood at 18.8%, compared to 14.8% in urban areas, a gap of 4 percentage points.The report defines monetary poverty as the situation in which a household’s income is insufficient to cover the cost of a basic basket of goods and services.
