Economic factors should not be used to explain the volatility of the exchange rate in the country today, according to economist Eddy Labossière.
“There is no logical explanation that is consistent with the phenomenon of depreciation of the gourde observed in the country in recent times. The arguments relating to insufficient production, the budget deficit financed by the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), the imbalance between imports and exports are all clichés, “said Professor Eddy Labossière in an interview to Le Nouvelliste, arguing that the foreign exchange market where transparency does not exist is far from perfect in Haiti.
Labossière accused some private sector oligarchs of being responsible for the decline of the gourde, the national currency. To corroborate his statements, he said that at some point, there was no budget deficit yet the gourde had continued to depreciate. Professor Labossière also thinks that the drop in diaspora transfers referred to by certain economists during the Covid-19 pandemic will not be too great to influence the exchange rate.
“There are still a lot of people in the transfer houses who come to get their money so far. Expect a sharp drop in transfers, “said the president of the Haitian Association of Economists (AHE).
During the last socio-political unrest known as “peyilòk”, the gourde remained stable, said Labossière. This stability of the national currency is not really explained by the slowdown in economic activities, addedLabossière, but by the fear of the mafia sector of the oligarchy, while recalling that the fall of the President would also cause the system collapse and probably ruin them.
“During the Covid-19 health crisis, we witnessed a slowdown in economic activities, the closing of borders, the decline in imports from the country and trade between countries. However, the gourdecontinues its descent into hell contrary to the time of the disturbances marked by the movement (peyi lòk) “, Labossière said. Continue reading.
Mr Labossiere, for me it is not a question of talking , it is what you can do to make the changes that the People need. It is not a question of what Haiti can do for haitiens but what haitiens can do for Haiti. The country is that way because the people do not respect or they devalorize their brothers and sisters. They think that their black brothers and sisters deserve absolutely nothing so they won’t do a thing to make life better. At the same token, they don’t realize that they do not like themselves in the process since the are also black. It is the slave mentality? Or else? Well for whatever the reasons it is wrong to destroy our own that way. This is a form genocide.
We need to change that.