(2022-04) Budget Framework Letter FY2021-2022 (Prime Minister's memorandum)

This is a formal memorandum (Lettre de cadrage) issued by the Office of the Prime Minister of Haiti, signed by Dr. Ariel Henry on 4 April 2022, addressed to all spending authorities (ordonnateurs) of the state administration. It explains that FY2020-2021 ended with a supplementary (rectified) budget adopted about two weeks before the fiscal year's close, driven by a compounding series of shocks: a COVID-19 resurgence from May 2021, the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in early July 2021 and the ensuing institutional vacuum, the 7.2-magnitude earthquake of 14 August 2021 affecting the Sud, Nippes and Grand'Anse departments (losses and damages equivalent to 10.9% of 2020 GDP), Tropical Depression Grace two days later, and a resurgence of gang violence and kidnapping for ransom. FY2020-2021 outturns were: real GDP growth of -1.8%, inflation of 13%, a tax pressure ratio of 5.7%, and BRH financing of the Treasury of 42.9 billion gourdes (including 50% of the IMF's SDR allocation). Because no budget was adopted on time for FY2021-2022, the first six months were managed under a renewed (reconducted) rectified budget. The letter describes further shocks in early FY2021-2022 (fuel supply difficulties, renewed gang violence and kidnappings, customs and tax administration access problems) and external shocks (global commodity price spikes and the Russia-Ukraine war, which pushed Haiti's year-on-year inflation to 24% by January 2022, with imported goods prices up 33% versus 19.1% for local goods, and slowed diaspora remittance growth to 3% year-on-year over the first four months of FY2021-2022 versus 36% previously). The government's response centers on a Priority Actions Program (PAP) drawing on the National Social Protection Policy (PNPPS), the South Peninsula Integrated Recovery Plan (PRIPS, allocated 10 billion gourdes of Treasury investment over 4 years) and the SDGs, plus a newly negotiated IMF Staff-Monitored Program intended to catalyze other donors. Reform priorities listed include reducing BRH financing of the deficit, strengthening exchange rate policy, a phased fuel subsidy elimination plan with social mitigation, the first Haitian Fiscal Code, extension of the Revenue Management System, customs information-sharing with the Dominican Republic, CSCCA publication of the COVID-19 spending audit, wage bill containment (1 hire for 2 departures), and PNPPS program funding of 3 billion gourdes for the remaining six months. The revised FY2021-2022 budget projections are: real GDP growth of 0.3%, a tax pressure ratio of 6.4% (versus 5.7% in FY2020-2021), inflation revised upward to 27.3% year-on-year (versus 13% in FY2020-2021), and BRH financing of 40.3 billion gourdes (versus 49.2 billion in FY2020-2021).

This is a Primature (Office of the Prime Minister) memorandum signed by Dr Ariel Henry, not an MEF-issued document, despite the doc_id prefix 'mef-cadrage'; organization set to Primature accordingly. Cover/signature page is dated 04 Avril 2022 (not a MEF cadrage letter per se, but the budget framework letter for FY2021-2022, revising the initial cadrage). A sibling version A exists for the same FY2021-2022 cadrage; content differs in that this version (B) is the formal 9-page PM memorandum with detailed shock narrative and end-of-document revised projections, dated April 2022 near the close of the fiscal year -- likely a later/updated cadrage revision rather than a near-duplicate, but flagged for reviewer comparison against version A.