Leslie Delatour
Haitian economist
Leslie Delatour (1950–2001) was a Haitian public official and economist who shaped Haiti’s economic policies during the late 20th century. He was Haiti's Minister of Finance in 1986–1987 and later Governor of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti from 1994 to 1998. He also served as consultant at the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and USAID.
A neoliberal, Delatour advocated for fiscal discipline, economic liberalization, and structural reforms. He helped shape Haiti’s economic strategies in collaboration with organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. His policies led to huge privatisations, destroyed the country's agriculture industry, and led to a large influx of rural poor to the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince. At the height of his career, Delatour was dubbed by Le Monde Diplomatique as "all-powerful".
Early life
Delatour was born in 1950. He studied at Johns Hopkins University, and at the University of Chicago.
Career
Ministerial advisor
His first notable job in Haiti was working in 1982 for Finance Minister Marc Bazin under the administration of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Bazin became favored in international circles for his anti-corruption drive but he was removed from his post after five months.
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This entry incorporates text from “Leslie Delatour” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.