Santo Domingo. – The Dominican economy is not in recession, though affected by the crisis in the United States and the European Union, said Hacienda minister Vicente Bengoa Thursday.

The official said if the country was in an economic recession its Gross Domestic Product would decline in two consecutive quarters. “I want to clarify that I at no time have said the Dominican economy is in recession, and the most evident test that it isn’t so is that the Gross Domestic Product hasn’t decreased in any quarter.”

Bengoa affirmed that the Dominican economy, as those of the rest of the world, is affected only by the recession in the United States and the European Union. “Like I’ve said the country isn’t on the Moon.”

He reiterated that the reason tax revenues were 1.3 billion less than expected is because in the first quarter of 2008 the country was affected by the strongest external shock in the last 20 years.