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Haiti and its International Debt

Haiti was born into debt when it became independant of France in the early 1800's.
1. Forced to repay France the equivalent of $21 billion
2. Haiti then occupied by USA who designated 51% of its economy revenues to repay external debt, 47% to pay internal debt, and the last 2% on everything else
  1. Lack of investment on health and eduction
    1. Low productivity workforce
  2. Haiti repaid debt to france by 1947, but the US left Haiti, with Haiti having to pay back new debt to USA
    1. The Duvallier Dictatorship took $900million out of Haiti economy for induvidual purposes and controlling the population
      1. In 2006 Haiti owed $1.3billion to external crditors
        Spend $56 million a year on repaying debt when 80% of country lived in absolute poverty
    2. IMF forced Haiti to drop its tariffs on agricultural production
      1. Led to cheap subsidised rice being sold in Haiti
        Led to Haitain farmers losing trade and migrating to Port-Au Prince to earn better wage
  3. Little money spent on earthquake proofing
    1. Jan 2010 Earthquake killed 220,000 and made 2 million homeless
Impact of debt on Haiti
1. In 2006 had $1.2 billion of debt
  1. Previous debt repayment resulted in 98% of GDP being spent repaying that debt
    1. Only 2% spent on education, health and infrastructure

Haiti and its International Debt

	Created by Will Turner almost 10 years ago