Haitian consumers faced a punishing 20 percent annual inflation rate by September 2019, a figure that economists said understated the true hardship experienced by low-income families. Price increases for staples including rice, beans, cooking oil, and charcoal were running well ahead of the official inflation index, as currency depreciation and supply chain disruptions drove up costs across the board.
Street vendors in Port-au-Prince told reporters that they were raising prices almost weekly to keep pace with their own rising costs from suppliers. Customers, many of them surviving on less than two dollars a day, described cutting back on food portions and skipping meals to stretch limited household budgets.
The inflation shock came on top of an already dire economic situation. Haiti’s official unemployment rate stood at 30 percent, with analysts suggesting the true figure was considerably higher when accounting for underemployment and the large informal sector. Wages for those with work had not kept pace remotely with rising prices.
The Bank of the Republic of Haiti implemented measures to try to control inflation, including limited foreign exchange interventions, but experts acknowledged that without a resolution to the underlying political crisis, the tools available to monetary authorities were severely constrained.