Dominica's Citizenship by Investment Programme — Fast Revenue Growth, IMF-Flagged Fiscal Risk

Introduced in 1993, Dominica's Citizenship by Investment Programme (CBI) is one of the world's longest-running economic citizenship schemes, administered by the government's Citizenship by Investment Unit (CBIU). Applicants qualify by contributing a minimum of US$200,000 to the state's Economic Diversification Fund or by purchasing pre-approved real estate of equivalent value, in exchange for Dominican citizenship.
After Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017, the government leaned heavily on CBI receipts to finance reconstruction: a new international airport, a geothermal energy facility and climate-resilient housing were all funded substantially from the programme. CBI revenue reached an estimated 37% of GDP (roughly US$232 million) in fiscal year 2022/23, according to the CBIU.
The IMF's June 2024 Article IV consultation put CBI revenue at roughly 33% of GDP in 2022 and 26.9% in 2023, but projected a decline to 16.6% in 2024 and 14.9% in 2025 as global demand and regional competition shift. Excluding CBI, Dominica's primary fiscal balance would be deeply negative — an estimated -40.9% of GDP in 2022 and -17.6% in 2023 — illustrating how central the programme has become to day-to-day government finances. The Fund's Executive Board explicitly flagged 'remaining AML/CFT deficiencies' and urged authorities to broaden the non-CBI tax base and further strengthen programme governance; Dominica introduced mandatory applicant interviews and third-party sanctions-list screening in 2024 partly in response.
This is a genuine growth and public-investment engine for a small island economy with few other revenue levers, and it has funded real infrastructure. But by the IMF's own account it is a fiscally fragile one: revenue is inherently volatile, tied to global investment-migration demand and intensifying competition from at least four other Caribbean CBI programmes, governance and financial-integrity concerns persist, and the Fund's own risk assessment for Dominica is explicitly 'tilted to the downside.'

Read the full analysis: https://www.cbiu.gov.dm/