Search
AI-powered search, human-powered content.
scroll to top arrow or icon

Haiti stuck in a "vicious circle," says IMF economist

Amid the current global turmoil, one country that's definitely no stranger to crises is Haiti. Haitians will surely feel the pinch of rising prices of things like food and fuel, International Monetary Fund economist Nicole Laframboise says during a Global Stage conversation with GZERO Media in partnership with Microsoft.

With more than 60% of the population under the poverty line and food inflation up 40%, it's going to be "extremely difficult for the poor," she told Shari Friedman, Eurasia Group's Managing Director for Climate and Sustainability.

Haiti didn't suffer as much from the economic shock of the pandemic as other countries because it doesn't trade much nor have a big tourism sector.


But recently the much wider concern has been what Laframboise describes as "homegrown" political instability — which undermines the ability of the government and of the IMF to provide advice on macroeconomic policy.

"It's hard. It's hard for them, and it's hard ... for us." So, what do countries like Haiti do when they can't borrow money to pay for food when it gets more expensive?

They often have no choice but to print money, which makes inflation rise even more.

"It's kind of like a vicious circle," says Laframboise, "but we are working with the authorities to help them break out of this circle."

This interview was part of a series of Global Stage interviews with international thought leaders at the World Bank and IMF spring meetings. Watch the Global Stage livestream with several of these thought leaders here.

More from Global Stage

Can we use AI to secure the world's digital future?

How do we ensure AI is safe, available to everyone, and enhancing productivity? It’s a big topic at this year’s UN General Assembly. That’s why GZERO’s Global Stage livestream brought together leading experts at the heart of the action for “Live from the United Nations: Securing our Digital Future,” an event produced in partnership between the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, or CRAF’d, and GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, sponsored by Microsoft.

Is the Europe-US rift leaving us all vulnerable?

As the tense and politically charged 2025 Munich Security Conference draws to a close, GZERO’s Global Stage series presents a conversation about strained relationships between the US and Europe, Ukraine's path ahead, and rising threats in cyberspace.

AI for the entrepreneur

At the 2025 AI for Good Summit in Geneva, GZERO’s Tony Maciulis sat down with AI educator and content creator Natalie Choprasert, whose mission is to make artificial intelligence more accessible to everyday business owners.

Skilling for the AI era: What do you need to succeed?

"AI isn’t one thing, it’s everything, everywhere, all at once,” says Naria Santa Lucia, General Manager of Microsoft Elevate. In this Global Stage conversation with GZERO’s Tony Maciulis at the 2025 AI for Good Summit in Geneva, Santa Lucia explores how generative AI is transforming not just the way we work—but how we prepare to work at all.

AI for Good depends on global cooperation, says ITU's Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the ITU, discusses the urgent global challenge of the widening digital divide in AI access and policy at the 2025 AI for Good Summit, in an exclusive Global Stage interview with GZERO's Tony Maciulis.

AI innovations that tackle the global refugee crisis

“Tech is a means to an end, not the end itself,” says Hovig Etyemezian, head of UNHCR’s Innovation Service. Speaking to GZERO's Tony Maciulis at the 2025 AI for Good Summit in Geneva, Etyemezian explains how technology is helping address one of the world’s most urgent challenges: the record number of forcibly displaced people. As conflicts rise and resources shrink, UNHCR is using data, AI, and digital tools to improve services and empower refugee communities, but only when designed with those communities, not for them.