“Macroeconomic Impacts of the International Oil Shock on the Haitian Economy” is the theme chosen for the special edition of the BID (Inter-American Development Bank) Wednesday Reflection, this week, organized online via the Zoom platform.
“Macroeconomic Impacts of the International Oil Shock on the Haitian Economy” is the theme chosen for this week’s special edition of BID’s (Inter-American Development Bank) Wednesday Reflection, organized online via the Zoom platform. A team from the Central Bank, including Jean Marie Cayemite and Jean Gardy Victor, among others, contributed to the discussions by presenting the results of a recent study on the macroeconomic impacts of the international oil shock on the Haitian economy. “An international oil shock becomes, for Haiti, a balance of payments and exchange rate shock,” stated Jean Marie Cayemite.To better make himself understood, Jean Marie Cayemite reminded that Haiti neither produces nor refines hydrocarbons. Consequently, the country is obliged to import all petroleum products consumed locally, and the bill must be paid in U.S. dollars. He also emphasized the central role of fuels in transportation, electricity production, goods distribution, domestic production costs, etc. “The oil bill constitutes a major item of the import bill. Every variation in international crude prices mechanically reflects on the country’s energy bill within a very short time,” stated Mr. Cayemite. Furthermore, Jean Marie Cayemite also highlighted that Haiti is a country that imports crude oil but not refined products. In this sense, he made a comparison between the price of crude (WTI) and international prices of refined fuels. “A permanent 10% increase in crude oil leads, in the long term,an increase of about 9.6% to 10.8% in the prices of refined products,” he said.
