IMF Management Approves the Second Review and Extends the Staff-Monitored Program with Haiti

IMF News, November 26, 2025

Source details

Canonical URL: IMF Management Approves the Second Review and Extends the Staff-Monitored Program with Haiti

Management of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the second review of the Staff-Monitored Program (SMP) with Haiti and the authorities’ request for a nine-month extension of the SMP through September 19, 2026.
Press release date: November 26, 2025; Management approval reported as having taken place on November 25, 2025.
SMP purpose: informal agreement to monitor implementation of the authorities’ economic program and build a track record of policy implementation potentially leading to IMF UCT financial assistance. Haiti’s SMP is tailored to acute security challenges, institutional fragility, and capacity constraints.

Real GDP contracted in FY2025 for the seventh consecutive year.
Annual inflation remained high at around 32 percent.
Key external/domestic shocks and events:
- Expiration of the TPS for Haitians in the United States in February 2026.
- Non-renewal of the HOPE/HELP preferential trade agreement which ended in September 2025.
- Hurricane Melissa in late October 2025 caused significant loss of life and widespread damage to infrastructure and agricultural areas, exacerbating humanitarian needs.
Security: intensifying gang violence increases uncertainty and constrains economic activity.

All quantitative and indicative targets were met at the end-June test date.
Monetary financing of the fiscal deficit maintained at zero.
Social spending reached the program’s targets.
Revenue performance stayed on track.
International reserves continued to accumulate; net international reserves reached almost US$ 1.5 billion by end July 2025.
Reform implementation has continued, though with delays in some areas.
Authorities demonstrate strong ownership and engagement, including through a high-level SMP Monitoring Committee.

Governance and anticorruption
- Anchor and coordinate reforms in the Governance Diagnostic Report.
- Priorities: (i) enhancing transparency and accountability in public financial management; (ii) mitigating corruption risks in revenue administration; (iii) ensuring accountability for serious corruption, organized crime, and money laundering.
- Complete the national assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing and address strategic deficiencies in Haiti’s AML/CFT framework to support exit from the FATF grey list.
Revenue mobilization and budget execution
- Operationalize automated monthly data exchanges between tax and customs systems.
- Complete rollout of tax declarations and payments services for all large taxpayers across all commercial banks.
- Strengthen budget execution—especially for social and security spending—via improved treasury cash management and robust project appraisal and budget prioritization, in line with the 2022 IMF Public Investment Management Assessment.
Central bank and financial sector
- Maintain elimination of monetary financing of the budget deficit.
- Foreign exchange interventions should remain focused on supporting accumulation of international reserves and preserving exchange rate stability.
- Advance regulatory and supervisory reform, enhancing both on-site and off-site supervision.
Social safety net
- Enhance the social safety net to protect vulnerable populations and support humanitarian needs.

The nine-month SMP extension through September 19, 2026 will:
- Support macroeconomic stability.
- Preserve reform momentum.
- Allow political and security conditions to stabilize.
- Consolidate achievements and advance priorities: governance, institutional safeguards, revenue mobilization, public financial management efficiency.
- Allow for more thorough assessment of impacts from international initiatives, including the United Nations’ Gang Suppression Force and the Organization of American States’ ‘Haitian Led Road Roadmap for Recovery and Peace’.
Financing implications
- Haiti requires international financial support to address significant development needs.
- IMF view: support should come as grants rather than non-concessional loans to safeguard debt sustainability and meet immediate humanitarian, social, and economic needs.
Partnerships
- IMF staff will maintain close collaboration with Haiti’s main development partners, particularly on governance and capacity development, in line with the Fund’s Strategy for Fragile and Conflict-Affected States.

Source: IMF Management Approves the Second Review and Extends the Staff-Monitored Program with Haiti — November 26, 2025.