Dominican Republic

Explored and claimed by Christopher COLUMBUS on his first voyage in 1492, the island of Hispaniola became a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which in 1804 became Haiti. The remainder of the island, by then known as Santo Domingo, sought to gain its own independence in 1821 but was conquered and ruled by the Haitians for 22 years; it finally attained independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844. In 1861, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire, but two years later they launched a war that restored independence in 1865. A legacy of unsettled, mostly non-representative rule followed, capped by the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas TRUJILLO from 1930-61. Juan BOSCH was elected president in 1962 but was deposed in a military coup in 1963. In 1965, the United States led an intervention in the midst of a civil war sparked by an uprising to restore BOSCH. In 1966, Joaquin BALAGUER defeated BOSCH in an election to become president. BALAGUER maintained a tight grip on power for most of the next 30 years when international reaction to flawed elections forced him to curtail his term in 1996. Since then, regular competitive elections have been held in which opposition candidates have won the presidency. Former President (1996-2000) Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna won election to a new term in 2004 following a constitutional amendment allowing presidents to serve more than one term, and was since reelected to a second consecutive term.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Peso (ISO code: DOP)
* Central bank discount rate: 
* Commercial banks lending rate: 19.95% (31 December 2008)
* Stock of money (M1): $3.619 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $5.902 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "Dominican Republic: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	21 709	23 997	24 895	26 570	21 268	22 039	34 004	35 953	41 317	45 541
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "Dominican Republic: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	16.740	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "Dominican Republic: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30. 	 	 	 	 	 	14.247	15.821	16.199	17.633	
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "Dominican Republic: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.	 	 	 	 	 	13.727	14.441	14.846	14.789	
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* Dominican Republic on Wikipedia
* Central bank of Dominican Republic
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
Category:Countries