ABSTRACT
Between 1955 and 1975 Haiti's real G D P increased some 1.7 per cent per year,6 while at the same time the population growth rate amounted to 1.6 pe r cent,7 leaving the pe r capita p r o d u c t virtually stagnant .8 T h e estimates for the latter half of the 1970s differ. A World Bank repor t points to a real yearly growth rate between 1975 and 1979 in the order of 4.4 per cent, ' but this figure is quite probably an overestimate, one which is due to an over-optimistic view of agricultural performance.10 The last three years, finally, do not appear to change the overall picture very much: 1979 displayed a decline in real G D P per capita of around 0.3 per cent; 1980 showing considerable improvement (plus 5.3 per cent); and 1981 being a year with no growth at all in real output, i.e. with a decrease in G D P per capita equal to the rate of population growth.11 In 1979, Haiti's G N P per capita was es t imated to US$260, the same level as that of Pakis tan, Tanzania and mainland China.12
