Haiti Economic Forecast

In looking at impoverished countries, Haiti is one of the poorest specific to per capita GDP in the Western Hemisphere. Currently, some 80% of the population of this country lives below the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty. To survive, approximately 65% of all Haitians rely on agriculture, agrarian, fisheries, and farming sectors. For farming, the majority of these are smaller subsistence farms. The number one challenge that the people of Haiti have dealt with throughout time is the ongoing natural disasters.

In looking at impoverished countries, Haiti is one of the poorest specific to per capita GDP in the Western Hemisphere. Currently, some 80% of the population of this country lives below the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty. To survive, approximately 65% of all Haitians rely on agriculture, agrarian, fisheries, and farming sectors. For farming, the majority of these are smaller subsistence farms. The number one challenge that the people of Haiti have dealt with throughout time is the ongoing natural disasters.

Until the early part of 2008, Haiti’s economy had actually started to see some stabilization. Although the country was still faced with a multitude of obstacles, a number of positive things were happening. For instance, Haiti signed the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act in 2006, otherwise known as HOPE associated with the United States as a means of improving exportation of apparel and investment by providing free access to the USA. Sadly, Haiti was devastated in 2008 with four tropical storms and the massive earthquake in early 2010 that killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the land.

Haiti GDP Forecast

Until the tropical storms of 2008 and the earthquake of 2010, Haiti’s GDP was actually experiencing some economic growth. Even with the recent devastation, Haiti still depends on a significant amount of international assistance and while this has helped, trade deficits have hit record highs and inflation continues to rise. When looking back at the Haiti GDP (Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices, US Dollar) for 2008, we can see the year closed at $6.57 billion in US dollars. From that year to the end of 2009, change was virtually nonexistence, leaving 2009 at $6.558 billion that ranked this country worldwide at number 133. Although so many bad things have happened to Haiti since 2006, expert forecasters are predicting that the GDP will not change much by the end of 2010. It is believed that the end of this year will put the numbers at $6.47 billion, which is only a 1.31% change from the prior year. However, when looking at the end of 2010, we now see a much larger change to the GDP with predictions being at $9.305 billion in United States dollars.

Haiti Unemployment Forecast

In addition to economic struggles for Haiti being associated with natural disasters, other factors include political instability, shortage of arable land for farming, inadequate investments, inappropriate economic policies, and the migration of large numbers of skilled workers. When talking about the Haiti population of 8.944 million, the numbers include the lives lost from the earthquake. While some increase will be seen by the end of 2015, the numbers are not significant. Since much of the land is bad for growing crops and with 65% of the labor force depending on agriculture to live, it is easy to see the challenge. This coupled with all the other issues being dealt with puts the most current Haiti unemployment rate at a staggering 60%. To put this into perspective, consider that approximately 50% of the country’s population only earns $60 or less a year!

Haiti Inflation Rate Forecast

The Haiti inflation rate is also a serious problem for this country. For 2009, the rate was at 3.4%, a reduction of 76.39% from $14.40% reported at the end of 2008. Listed at number 87 for world rankings means this country rates 3.40 more than the average pertaining to average consumer price change. The prediction for inflation by the end of 2010 show Haiti is expected to be around 5.60%, an additional 64.71% increase from 2009. Then for 2015, experts expect to see some change but only enough to change the rate to 6.5%.

Haiti Current Account Balance Forecast

The Haiti current account balance is another part of the economic forecast, one that uses all transactions to develop predictions, excluding financial and capital items. At the end of 2009, the balance was a negative $0.21 billion in US dollars, a reduction of 29.05% from 2008’s reported number of negative $0.30 billion. For 2010 forecasts of the current account balance, experts believe a significant increase of 192.86% will be seen, which would change the numbers to a negative $0.62 billion but then for 2015, numbers will change slightly, closing the year at a negative $0.502 billion, US dollars.