Economy of Haiti
Port-au-Prince, the financial centre of Haiti
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| Currency | Haitian gourde (HTG) |
|---|---|
| 1 October–30 September | |
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Trade organisations
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Bank of the Republic of Haiti |
| Statistics | |
| GDP | $13.42 billion (2013 est. PPP) |
| GDP rank | 146th by volume (at PPP) (2007[update]); 157th by per capita (at PPP) (2007[update]) |
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GDP growth
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4.3% (2013 World Bank) |
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GDP per capita
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$1,300 (2013 est.) |
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GDP by sector
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Agriculture (24.1%); industry (19.9%); services (56%) (2013 est.) |
| 4.6% (2014 est, World Bank) | |
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Population below poverty line
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69% (2012 est.) |
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Labour force
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4.81 million |
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Labour force by occupation
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Agriculture (38.1%), industry (11.5%), services (50.4%)(2010 est.) |
| Unemployment | 7.1% |
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Main industries
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Sugar refining, flour milling, textiles, cement, light assembly, industries based on imported parts |
| 181st (2017) | |
| External | |
| Exports | $876.8 million (2013 est.) |
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Export goods
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apparel, manufactures, essential oils (Vetiver), cocoa, mangoes, coffee, bitter oranges (Grand Marnier) |
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Main export partners
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 United States 81.5% (2012 est.) |
| Imports | $2.697 billion (2013 est.) |
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Import goods
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food, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, fuels, raw materials |
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Main import partners
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 Dominican Republic 35.9% United States 24.7% Netherlands Antilles 9.8% China 6.6% (2012 est.) |
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Gross external debt
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$1.4 billion at peak; debt canceled in September 2009 |
| Public finances | |
| 1.118 billion (31 December 2013 est.) | |
| Revenues | $1.989 billion (2013 est.) |
| Expenses | $2.437 billion (2013 est.) |
| Economic aid | $600 million (FY04 est.) |
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All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars. |
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Haiti has a free market economy. Labor costs are lower than average for North America. Its major trading partner is the United States. Haiti has preferential trade access to the US market through the Haiti Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) and Haiti Economic Lift Program Encouragement Acts (HELP) legislation, which allows duty-free access, for a variety of textiles, to the US market.
Haiti has an agricultural economy. Over half of the world's vetiver oil (an essential oil used in high-end perfumes) comes from Haiti, and bananas, cocoa, and mangoes are important export crops. Haiti has also moved to expand to higher-end manufacturing, producing Android-based tablets and current sensors and transformers.
Vulnerability to natural disasters, as well as poverty and limited access to education are among Haiti's most serious disadvantages. Two-fifths of all Haitians depend on the agriculture sector, mainly small-scale subsistence farming, and remain vulnerable to damage from frequent natural disasters, exacerbated by the country's widespread deforestation. Haiti suffers from a severe trade deficit, which it is working to address by moving into higher-end manufacturing and more value-added products in the agriculture sector. Remittances are the primary source of foreign exchange, equaling nearly 20% of GDP. Haiti's economy was severely impacted by the 2010 Haiti earthquake which occurred on 12 January 2010.
Before Haiti established its independence from French administration in 1804, Haiti ranked as the world's richest and most productive colony. In the formative years of independence, Haiti suffered from isolation on the international stage, as evidenced by the early lack of diplomatic recognition accorded to it by Europe and the United States; this had a negative impact on willingness of foreigners to invest in Haiti. One very significant economic obstacle in Haiti's early independence was its necessary payment of 150 million francs to France beginning in 1825; this did much to drain the country of its capital stock. In 1838, France agreed to reduce the debt to 60 million francs to be paid over a period of 30 years. In 1883, Haiti made the final payment to France. Since then, and even in recent years, public spokesmen in Haiti as well as international academics and statesmen have denounced this event as the payment of an illegitimate debt, in several cases calling on the French government to repay it (the French government has never been willing to repay it, though there was a hoax following the 2010 Haiti earthquake involving a fake website purporting to offer reparation payment on behalf of the French Government). Since the demise of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, international economists have urged Haiti to reform and modernize its economy. Under President René Préval (President from 1996 to 2001 and from 2006 until 14 May 2011), the country's economic agenda included trade and tariff liberalization, measures to control government expenditure and increase tax revenues, civil-service downsizing, financial-sector reform, and the modernization of state-owned enterprises through their sale to private investors, the provision of private sector management contracts, or joint public-private investment. Structural adjustment agreements with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and other international financial institutions aiming at creating necessary conditions for private sector growth, have proved only partly successful.
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