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Economy of Haiti

Haiti is the poorest country in America and one of the poorest countries of the world with

around 80 percent of its population living in poverty1

. More than two-thirds of its people arebelieved to not have formal jobs, and just 62.1 percent of adults over age 15 are literate

2. As of

1995, the labor force was estimated at 3.6 million3, but with a shortage of skilled labor. Finding

unemployment statistics from Haiti is very difficult because of the lack of publication of such

data from the Haitian agencies in charge of collecting it.

But this was not always the case, Haiti during colonial times was one of the most beneficial and

rich colonies around the world. In fact Haiti was largely the source of the wealth of France in

the eighteenth century.4

However, due to natural disasters, bad government and bad luck Haiti

has changed its fate. I think that one of the main reasons of Haitis misery are people. Both the

international community and Haiti's rulers have continuously assured the destruction of Haiti's

colonial wealth and the creation and continuance of its misery.

Haitis economy is based in the agriculture which makes Haiti very dependent from the climate.

Subsistence crops include cassava, rice, sugarcane, sorghum, yams, corn, and plantains. . Most

Haitians own and farm tiny plots of land, and great population density has caused rural poverty

and is also a factor in the country's extensive deforestation, which has contributed to the

degradation of agricultural land5. Haiti's major exports are light manufactures and coffee; other

exports include oils, cocoa, mangoes, sugar, sisal, and bauxite. The United States is the

country's leading trading partner. Industry in Haiti consists largely of light assembly of importedparts and the manufacture of textiles. There is also sugar refining and flour milling, and other

foodstuffs are produced.Tourism in Haiti has not developed well because of the lack of

structure and organization in government, so this is a great resource for the country.

Remittances from Haitians working abroad are also extremely important. Economic sanctions

imposed by the United States and others to force a military regime to return power to the

elected government, and again later because of the government's inability to meet aid

conditions, further damaged the impoverished economy during the 1990s and early 2000s.

1According to the CIA World Factbook: www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook

2According to the United Nations Human Development Report: http://hdrstats.undp.org/

3According to the United States Agency for International Development

4This can be found in the history of the island.

5According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia: http://cup.columbia.edu/

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Haiti was having a positive economic growth in 2005; but due different tropical storms its

economy stayed static until January 2010, when Haiti had a devastating Earthquake its

economy went terribly down again. Along with others thing like corruption the Haitian

Economy had not recovered.