(Reuters) – Haiti has made “significant progress” on governance issues such as transparency, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday, as its management wrapped up a final review of an informal agreement to monitor its economic program.
In a second and final review of its Staff-Monitored Program (SMP), approved in June last year, the IMF said that despite worsening conditions domestically and in the global economy, authorities had adopted important reforms.
A challenging global economy has compounded a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, which has displaced tens of thousands of people amid escalating violence from powerful armed gangs, food insecurity and a resurgence of cholera which began last October.
“The authorities have taken measures to strengthen accountability in the use of public resources and have boosted the transparency of public procurement for emergency resources,” it said.
Despite this, “corruption and broader financial integrity risks need to continue to be effectively addressed,” it said.
Other measures included a new tax code broadening the country’s tax base and better revenue administration bringing customs income to a historic high in recent months, the IMF added, albeit from a low base.
The country’s 2023 budget is consistent with targets agreed under the SMP, it added, and its implementation has to date been in line with the aim of “reducing monetary financing of the budget deficit to levels that staff assesses to be non-inflationary.”
The IMF expects inflation to hit 44.5% this year, after prices for rice, a key staple, were up close to 70% last September. Early this year, it predicted an annual financing gap of $105 million, or 0.5% of the country’s GDP.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland and Kylie Madry; Editing by Steven Grattan)
