Haiti was born into debt when it became independant of France in the early 1800's.
Forced to repay France the equivalent of $21 billion
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
Lack of investment on health and eduction
Low productivity workforce
Haiti repaid debt to france by 1947, but the US left Haiti,
with Haiti having to pay back new debt to USA
The Duvallier Dictatorship took $900million out of Haiti economy for
induvidual purposes and controlling the population
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
IMF forced Haiti to drop its tariffs on agricultural production
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
Little money spent on earthquake proofing
Jan 2010 Earthquake killed 220,000 and made 2 million homeless
Impact of debt on Haiti
In 2006 had $1.2 billion of debt
Previous debt repayment resulted in 98% of GDP being spent
repaying that debt
Only 2% spent on education, health and infrastructure