Insecurity, main case for Haiti’s currency devaluation

Port-au-Prince, Aug 4 (Prensa Latina) Insecurity is the main cause of the depreciation of the national currency and inflation that are currently affecting Haiti, said economist Thomas Lalime, who predicts that the situation will worsen in the near future.

August 4, 2022
09:24

With more than 140 gourdes for one dollar on the informal market, the currency lost 28.6 percent of its value in the last six months, which had an impact on the 29-percent inflation recorded by the Haitian Institute of Statistics and Informatics (IHSI), according to the expert.

Lalime stated that the deterioration of the climate of peace and the increase in clashes among armed groups in which hundreds of people have been killed since April are one of the main causes of this devaluation.

This also includes that insecurity prevents the return of the diaspora that can inject fresh dollars into the economy.

In its recent report on monetary policy, the Bank of the Republic of Haiti acknowledged the fall of the gourde despite the state injection of more than 154 million dollars into the exchange market during the third quarter of the current fiscal year.

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