General shortages and an influx of foreigners with dollars since the January 12 quake have led to record price rises for everything from water, to gas, to phone cards, to taxis.

While the Haitian capital remains devastated, anyone who managed to stash extra food, petrol or cigarettes can now get rich, quick.

"I had several cans of gasoline at home for a factory on my property and I have been selling them little by little" said Ludovic. Now the canisters he sells disappear in minutes.

"Its 400 Haitian gourdes, no haggling," he said pricing a can at around ten US dollars. Before the quake a gallon of gasoline (four liters) fetched 200 gourdes.

With the gradual reopening of petrol stations, few have to depend on street vendors, but even in official outlets, the price has risen 20 percent in a week.

"If we want to get work, we have to pay more for gasoline," said taxi driver Leonard, who waited his turn at one of the reopened stations.

"At the same time, we are earning more if we pick up the foreigners who have come to the city."

Where water and soft drinks are sold, prices have risen more than 100 percent.

A 250 milliliter bag of water that once cost a gourde, now costs three. The soda that cost 10 gourde, now costs 20.

Phone cards, despite having the price labeled on them, also cost double. So too cigarettes and alcohol.

"Surely at these prices they rob the goods from any old semi-destroyed supermarket and sell them" lamented Corinne, wheeling a trolley full of the drinks.

Hotelers -- faced with a legion of journalists -- are not above price gouging either.

"On Tuesday, the rooms cost 70 dollars, on Wednesday, 200," said the manager of a Port-au-Prince hotel, who asked not to be named.

"We are not stealing, we offer a service when there are no services in the city.

"We try to give journalists, who are our only clients right now, water, electricity, Internet. That has a price."

In a city where all restaurants and 90 percent of the supermarkets are destroyed or closed, eating one proper meal a day is also a luxury that comes at a steep price.

A plate of pasta with tomato costs 11 dollars, scrambled eggs 13 dollars. Prices in the capital of the poorest country in the region are now comparable to those in Madrid or Rome.

"People have practically nothing to eat on the street. Humanitarian aid is not arriving. Getting this food costs money and time," said Maurice, the head of a hotel kitchen.

Taxis, already a luxury in the Haitian capital before the quake, are now well beyond the reach of all but the richest.

Cars are rented for up to 300 dollars per day, including driver and full fuel tank. For the same service a motorcycle, costs 100 dollars, or nearly 4,000 gourdes, in a country where the average worker earns 150 gourdes per day.

"I'm earning a lot of money" admitted Frederic Leny, a taxi driver, "but this is not going to last. Within days the rest of the world will have forgotten Haiti.

"I have to save because practically the whole country is without work now," he said expecting fewer fares ahead.

earlier related report
IMF chief seeks 'Marshall Plan' for ravaged Haiti
Washington (AFP) Jan 20, 2010 - IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn urged Wednesday a multilateral aid plan for earthquake-ravaged Haiti like the US "Marshall Plan" that rebuilt Europe after World War II.

"My belief is that Haiti -- which has been incredibly hit by different things: the food and fuel prices crisis, then the hurricane, then the earthquake -- needs something that is big," the managing director of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund said.

"Not only a piecemeal approach, but something which is much bigger to deal with the reconstruction of the country -- some kind of a Marshall Plan that we need now to implement for Haiti," he said, referring to the US initiative launched in 1947 to rebuild war-ravaged western Europe.

The international community is gearing up for a coordinated drive to help rebuild the poorest country in the western hemisphere, even as the primary focus remains on rescue and relief efforts after the massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12.

Officials fear as many as 200,000 people were killed in the quake that reduced most of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince to rubble and impacted an estimated three million people, one third of the country's population.

Haitian officials said Tuesday that 250,000 people were injured and a million were left homeless.

"The urgency, today, is to save the people. The urgency, in some weeks, will be the reconstruction," Strauss-Kahn said.

The IMF last Thursday promised an interest-free loan of 100 million dollars in initial emergency funds to the Haitian government to support essential activities and finance urgent imports.

The IMF loan has drawn criticism for adding to the debt burden of Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

"The most important thing is that the IMF is now working with all donors to try to delete all the Haitian debt, including our new loan," the former French Socialist finance minister said.

Strauss-Kahn recalled that the IMF had no immediate way to make a grant.

"If we succeed -- and I'm sure we will succeed -- even this loan will turn out to be finally a grant, because all the debt will have been deleted. And that's the very important thing for Haiti now."

The IMF and the World Bank classify Haiti among "heavily indebted poor countries" eligible for debt forgiveness. The Caribbean nation was granted 1.2 billion dollars in debt relief last June.

More than 1.2 billion dollars has been pledged in aid funding for Haiti, according to United Nations data, and the idea of a "Marshall Plan" appeared to be gaining traction.

Denis O'Brien, head of Irish telecommunications firm Digicel and Haiti's biggest foreign investor, said recently that he was working alongside former US president Bill Clinton on a such a plan to rebuild quake-ravaged Haiti.

"Obviously we need foreign direct investment but on a wider front we need a Marshall Plan," O'Brien said.

Canada will host a donors conference Monday in Montreal to discuss Haiti's reconstruction efforts and prepare for a donors meeting in March.

The donors' summit to help the former French colony had been proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will also deliver the opening address at the 40th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) next week in Davos, Switzerland.

Organizers said the Haitian crisis would be a major theme at the five-day meeting opening Wednesday, expected to draw 2,500 leaders from more than 90 countries, including Clinton.

"We want to use Davos to solicit commitments of our partners, members and constituents in the form of practical help for relief of the continued pain of Haiti's people and particularly for the reconstruction of Haiti," Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairman, said Wednesday.

"We hope that we can present a major common effort to the world community showing true corporate global citizenship in Davos," he said.

The rebuilding of Haiti, which already was in dire straits before the horrific earthquake, poses tough challenges, not least a notoriously weak rule of law that could result in wasted aid dollars.

The Caribbean nation ranks among the top 10 most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International.

Asked how resources should be prioritized in order to rebuild the country, Strauss-Kahn said: "We need to work with the government to see exactly how -- from their point of view and from our point of view -- things can be done."

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