In the aftermath of a coup d’etat in September 1991, in which elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide was forced from office and into exile, Haiti experienced a dramatic deterioration in economic and social conditions. After three years of military dictatorship, a negotiated solution was reached which allowed President Aristide to return to Haiti on October 16, 1994, and on November 7, 1994, Parliament confirmed the appointment of a new constitutional Government. At that time, Haiti was in a state of economic and social emergency, characterized by debilitated institutions, large macroeconomic imbalances, a severely dilapidated infrastructure, depleted productive assets, alarming social indicators, and pervasive poverty. Already during 1980-91, the population had suffered a continuing decline in its standard of living, with real GNP per capita falling by about 2 percent per year. Between 1992-94, Haiti’s real per capita income declined at a multiple of this rate, to well below US$250 — making Haiti by far the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.