Monday at a press conference, Jean Baden Dubois, the Governor of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) as part of efforts to curb the devaluation of the Gourde (123.7372 for 1 dollars August 23, 2022, BRH rate) has announced that he intended to bring order to the foreign exchange market in order to bring the rates of the informal sector [which can reach up to 150 Gourdes for 1 dollar YS] closer to that of the formal market. He laments that some entrepreneurs and traders (who post their prices in dollars) set their own rates by speculating on the foreign exchange market...

To this end, for a better control of the Haitian economy, he plans to inject 100 to 150 million US dollars into the market before the end of the fiscal year (September 30) in order to stabilize the exchange rate, in addition to a reduction in the policy rates and the expansion of the bonds of the treasury from October 1 with an interest rate of 11.5% (which was reserved for banks and certain companies). He also announced the increase to 53% of the reserve requirement coefficient on liabilities in foreign currencies. A change in circular 88-1 to make interest rates on lines of credit more expensive to avoid, as is the case today, that many people make withdrawals on their lines of credit to trade in dollars

"The problem is that all Haitians have become stockbrokers. When the speculative bubble will burst, do not come and tell me that the Bank of the Republic of Haiti is bad [...] nothing justifies this rate on the informal market, this disorder that we see today". As for the exchange losses that these measures are likely to cause among small shareholders and other speculators, he declared "You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs".

For all the other details, watch the press conference of the Governor of the BRH :

HL/ HaitiLibre