Above: a newly-inaugurated staircase in Petionville (Photo: OP)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti’s economy led the Caribbean in 2011 and will do so again in 2012, according to new data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Haiti’s GDP grew 5.6 percent in 2011, the highest rate in the Caribbean, and is projected to grow by 6 percent this year, according to the report.

Guyana had the second-highest growth rate in the region last year at 5.4 percent (its growth is projected to fall to 4.1 percent this year).

The Latin American and Caribbean region is projected to grow 3.7 percent in 2012, with a 1.9 percent growth rate in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Haiti’s growth was led last year by what ECLAC called the “favourable” performance of sectors including construction (which grew 9.2 percent in the last fiscal year) and manufacturing (which increased by 18 percent).

A rise in inflation last year in Haiti was due largely to an upward global trend of prices in products like oil and food, although it slowed towards the end of the year.

See below for the full table of projected growth rates in the Caribbean this year:

Source: ECLAC