INTL 190 - Haiti in a Transnational Context

Economy of Haiti

Economic state of Haiti has always been an issue of concern. Since gaining its independence in 1804, Haiti had to pay a huge amount of debt to France to avoid war. It took Haiti 122 years to pay an estimate of 21 billion in today’s dollars, according to Forbes Magazine. This debt delayed Haiti’s economic development since the country was focusing on paying France instead of focusing on developing the newly independent nation. Deforestation of the lands in Haiti during colonization result in flooding problems, which harm the agriculture sector in Haiti. Moreover, since the earthquake in 2010, Haiti is known as The Republic of NGOs and has more than largest amount of Non-Profit Organizations per capita in the world. These non-profit organizations have attempted to aid Haiti by providing food and shelter to Haitians, however Haiti does not have the proper infrastructure to be immune to the natural disasters, hurricanes, and earthquake and these aids do not have a good long term impact on Haiti’s economy. According to Forbes, the average income in Haiti is 350 dollars a year, and the data from the The World Bank shows that the GDP of Haiti has doubled from 6.814 billion in 2000 to 14.508 billion in 2020. Although GDP of Haiti has been rising since past two decade, this might be due to the money sent from relatives residing overseas to their family members in Haiti.




The news media Al Jazeera explains the concept of remittances in Haiti and the financial help of the relatives to help their family members survive in Haiti. Moreover, Haiti has mostly suffered from a lack of stable government since gaining its independence. Corruption in the Haitian government leads to a high unemployment rate since most of the people do not have formal jobs. Despite the high unemployment in Haiti, there are agricultural products that are being exported to the Bahamas from Haiti and the next section highlights some of the major trade agreements between the two countries.





 

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