International financial institutions confirmed in 2022 that Haiti’s economy had contracted for the fifth consecutive year, with GDP declining further as the security crisis, political instability, cholera outbreak, and fuel shortages combined to suppress economic activity across all sectors. The string of contractions represented a sustained economic deterioration unprecedented in Haiti’s modern history.
Inflation continued to run at extremely high rates, eroding the purchasing power of households already living on the margins. The fuel price doubling caused by the removal of subsidies in August added directly to inflation, feeding through to transportation costs, food prices, and the cost of operating the generators that provided electricity for those who could afford them. For Haiti’s poor majority, the combination of income loss and price increases was devastating.
The formal private sector, which had been struggling to operate through years of political crisis, found 2022 particularly difficult. The fuel blockades that periodically cut off petroleum supplies disrupted manufacturing, transport, and commercial operations. The gang expansion that made some neighborhoods inaccessible reduced the market footprint of businesses that could no longer safely operate in or deliver to affected areas.
Economists noted that the cumulative economic damage of five consecutive years of contraction was immense. GDP per capita had fallen substantially from its pre-crisis level, meaning that the average Haitian was significantly poorer in real terms than they had been before the protest movement began in 2018. Recovering even to pre-crisis levels would require sustained growth of several years even if conditions improved dramatically, which they showed no signs of doing.