DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | Power crisis refuses to go away. President Leonel Fernández is now predicting that the supply of electricity will return to normal in early October, after September ended with generation, at 977MWh, lagging well behind a demand estimated at 1,635MWh. The announced disbursement of US$10m a month to the generating companies has failed to reverse the situation. Finance minister Vicente Bengoa has promised to reach a swift agreement with the generating firm AES Dominicana and the distributor Edeeste on the outstanding government debt, in order to speed up the normalisation of the service.
HAITI | Agriculture hard hit by Jeanne. The tropical storm Jeanne is reckoned to have devastated about 10,000 hectares of Haiti's best farmland. This is expected to sharply reduce the country's ability to satisfy its food needs with domestic production, which has already shrunk from about 70% in the 1970s to about 40% now, according to the World Food Program. An additional impact on the economy will come from the resulting increase in prices for foodstuffs and livestock.
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