Prime Minister's Budget Framework Letter

The framework letter for the FY2008-2009 draft finance law, addressed to each minister.

It opens on a fiscal year that ended badly. Already under the shock of rising fuel and food prices, the country was struck by four hurricanes in succession, causing losses of about 14.6% of GDP, a little under half of which is attributed to agriculture alone, one of the main pillars of growth. The destruction of significant infrastructure changed the starting conditions for government action in 2008-2009.

The new year opens against the international financial and economic crisis. The letter expects the contraction of the United States economy to affect Haiti mainly through an anticipated reduction in transfers from the diaspora, which it says would expose the balance of payments to greater difficulty. Monetary and fiscal policy coordination is to continue securing exchange rate stability and control of inflation. Reconstruction and recovery under the emergency programme financed by PETROCARIBE funds are to be pursued, with priority on actions capable of stimulating growth in agriculture and tourism, and public works are named as the sector whose coherence with those two priorities matters most.

Budget forecasts are to be built on inflation not exceeding 11.5% year on year and an average exchange rate of 41 gourdes to the dollar. Identified external budget support does not exceed 3.36 billion gourdes, while revenue forecasts total 32.7 billion gourdes, an increase of about 26% on the previous year that the letter says will require particular effort from the collecting agencies.