Action plan for national recovery and development of Haiti: Immediate Key Initiatives for the Future. March 2010

The priorities of the Action Plan for National Recovery and Development are responding to the urgent situation immediately, relaunching economic, governmental, and social activity, reducing Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters, and putting Haiti back on the road to development.

The plan is divided into two phases. The first is in the immediate future, which lasts 18 months, covers the end of the emergency period and includes preparation for projects to generate genuine renewal. The second stage has a time horizon of ten years, allowing it to take into account three programming cycles of the National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction.
Source: Government of the Republic of Haiti

Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2007-2008

General trends:
According to ECLAC's flagship report, Haiti’s economy posted a GDP growth rate of 3.2% in 2007, with a fiscal deficit equivalent to 1.6% of GDP. However, the institutional crisis that engulfed the country as a result of the disturbances in April 2008, whose immediate political outcome was the removal of the prime minister and his cabinet, compromised some of the economic expectations for fiscal year 2008.  Source: ECLAC

Haiti: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. March 2008

The two major phases in the measures to be adopted to reduce poverty and stimulate growth in Haiti in the coming decades are:

First Phase: 2007-2009
This phase corresponds to the 2007/08 – 2009/10 period, covering the three years of implementation of economic and financial commitments made under the IMF’s PRGF, namely: (i) maintaining the current macroeconomic framework built around sound management of the economy with prudent fiscal and monetary policies in order to reduce significantly major internal and external economic imbalances; and (ii) modernizing agriculture and stepping up efforts to modernize transport infrastructure, improve the supply of electricity, and develop telecommunications services. However, the promotion of greater social equity through education and health will prove to be key to reducing poverty and inequality during this period.

Second Phase: 2010-2015
The main focus of this phase will be to strive for accelerated growth and greater control over social development. Consequently, the emphasis during this phase will be on reducing both monetary and human poverty. The macroeconomic framework will be reoriented in such a way as to make it more attractive to those economic sectors whose potential could be more easily exploited, such as the highly promising areas of the agricultural sector, agro-industry, tourism and the textile subsectors of the manufacturing industry, which will benefit if they are accorded
priority. During this second phase of the economic and social development strategy, the focus of the Central Bank should no longer be mainly on lowering inflation; it should also target growth and job creation.
Source: International Monetary Fund

Haiti: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix.  August 9, 2007

The Selected Issues paper accompanying the 2007 Article IV staff report covers three topics that are central to Haiti’s challenge of further consolidating economic stability and converting the incipient recovery into a sustainable economic expansion. The first chapter analyzes Haiti’s external competitiveness.
The second chapter discusses avenues for further developing Haiti’s monetary policy framework, to help consolidate a stable low-inflation environment and support deepening domestic financial markets.
The concluding chapter focuses on options to increase domestic revenues as a means of funding priority expenditures.  Source: International Monetary Fund

Haiti: Options and Opportunities for Inclusive Growth

Country Economic Memorandum
June 1, 2006

The Haitian population has demonstrated resilience and creativity in the face of severe challenges. Marred by political instability, economic mismanagement and exogenous shocks, Haiti has suffered negative economic growth in three decades of the last forty years. Even when economic growth has taken place, it has not been sustained. Haiti’s pattern of socio-economic development has also been characterized by marked inequalities in access to productive assets and public services, the result of exclusionary policies and ineffective public institutions. The resulting widespread poverty has meant that less of the gains from growth, when this has materialized, have been shared by the poor. In turn, the inability of poor Haitians to exploit growth-promoting opportunities for investment in physical and human capital has created a vicious circle of weak economic growth and persistent poverty and inequality.
source:World Bank

Economic Performance of 2006

Sources: Haiti Country Profile 2006, Haiti's Economic Challenge

After being ranked as the poorest and most corrupt country in the world, few positive remarks could be stated about Haiti. Nevertheless, the country posted a marginal real growth of 1.8%, where sectors such as, services (52%) and agriculture (28%) contribute the most to GDP respectively. Though services might have been the most sustainable or consistent benefactor to the value of GDP since the 90’s, the agricultural sector provides employment for over 66% of Haiti’s labour force. Industry and manufacturing provides a small, yet meaningful 10% employment to the labour force, where commodities such as, beverages, refined sugar, and detergent lead output in this sector.

POVERTY

Given its long history of political upheaval, where immense concentration of incomes cause 80% of the population to live below the poverty line, Haiti has a cumbersome development task which lies ahead. Furthermore, the index of economic freed puts Haiti’s economy as 52.2% free. Since starting a business in Haiti takes four times longer than the world average, business freedom and freedom from corruption proved to be the major weaknesses (in terms of economic freedom). Presently, services are the main sector for permanent positions, yet most labourers in Haiti assume temporary employment. The majority of these transient jobs come from subsistence farming and agriculture (two-thirds of population), and if 63% of the land is too steep by agronomic standards for agricultural production, it surely indicates that there must be prevalence of under-employment due to uncertainty of agricultural output.

To make matters worst, loans from commercial banks are virtually unattainable, since most banks lack stability (in 2000 ‘cooperatives’ planned by President Aristide for banking crumbled, and Haitians lost more than US$200 million in savings). Apparently, hope for skilled professionals in the future is also slim, since Haiti is extremely low in terms of education standards, as only 53% of the population is literate. Though school attendance may have rose from 20% in 1994 to 64% in 2000, the country still lacks from qualified professionals and educational supplies.