Above: Haiti (Photo: MT Haiti)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti will lead the Caribbean in economic growth in 2013, according to a forecast in the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report released Tuesday.

That matches a projection by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean released in December.

The World Bank estimated a lower growth rate for the country in 2012, however, at just 2.2 percent.

That number mirrored a reduction from earlier, higher estimates by other multilaterals, including the IMF, which had cited several factors: reportedly low execution of public capital spending, and a pair of severe storms. The second storm, Hurricane Sandy, reportedly damaged 70 percent of Haiti’s crops.

Haiti’s growth is projected to drop to 4.2 percent in 2014, according to the Bank. That would be the second-highest rate in the region, following Guyana at 4.6 percent.

Guyana will post the second-highest growth rate in the Caribbean this year, at 4.8 percent, followed by the Dominican Republic at 4.3 percent.

Jamaica is forecasted to post the region’s slowest growth, at just 1 percent, in 2013.

The Caribbean region as a whole is projected to grow 3.3 percent this year.

Cuba, Grenada and St Kitts were not included due to “data limitations,” according to the World Bank.

See below for the full forecasts for 2013 and 2014 from the World Bank.