NewsWhore
02-17-2010, 05:00 PM
It is possible that the man in the street does not know that in 30 seconds Haiti lost 60% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as claimed by the Haitian government, or, as the Inter-American Development Bank says, suffered the worst damage to a country in modern history. All he knows is that the factory where he works will close for repairs at the end of the month and that the private school where he taught English was destroyed by the earthquake. According to Listin Diario, the director for the Center for Promoting Investments in Haiti (CFI), Guy Lamothe, said that only 20% of Haiti's economy is formal and 80% is informal, but all of it has been affected by the earthquake.
According to ECLAC (the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America), Haiti had been recovering, with a 2% GDP increase and a reduction in the balance of payments deficit of 14%. However, now the situation is disastrous.
According to Haitian Commerce and Industry Minister Joselin Colimon Fethiere, there was a 40% unemployment rate before the earthquake, and they had just created a program that would provide 25,000 jobs right away and 100,000 in 3 years. All this went by the wayside on 12 January. Yesterday, CNN announced that the IDB has said that they needed US$14 billion to rebuild Haiti.
The impact of all of this on the Dominican Republic could be huge. Government economists and other experts are warning that the demand for products for rebuilding Haiti could have a negative effect on the Dominican economy if it is not protected in time. Customs Director Rafael Camilo has said that if there is excess demand for products, once the initial stage of emergency aid is over, this could affect national production and cause an increase in the prices of certain items to the detriment of the "popular classes."
Fabricio Gomez Mazara, an economist at INTEC, says that Dominican producers should adapt to the demand for goods, a situation he calls "good for producers, because it increases their production, but harmful for consumers who will see increased prices for consumer goods."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#13)
According to ECLAC (the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America), Haiti had been recovering, with a 2% GDP increase and a reduction in the balance of payments deficit of 14%. However, now the situation is disastrous.
According to Haitian Commerce and Industry Minister Joselin Colimon Fethiere, there was a 40% unemployment rate before the earthquake, and they had just created a program that would provide 25,000 jobs right away and 100,000 in 3 years. All this went by the wayside on 12 January. Yesterday, CNN announced that the IDB has said that they needed US$14 billion to rebuild Haiti.
The impact of all of this on the Dominican Republic could be huge. Government economists and other experts are warning that the demand for products for rebuilding Haiti could have a negative effect on the Dominican economy if it is not protected in time. Customs Director Rafael Camilo has said that if there is excess demand for products, once the initial stage of emergency aid is over, this could affect national production and cause an increase in the prices of certain items to the detriment of the "popular classes."
Fabricio Gomez Mazara, an economist at INTEC, says that Dominican producers should adapt to the demand for goods, a situation he calls "good for producers, because it increases their production, but harmful for consumers who will see increased prices for consumer goods."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#13)