UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The economy of earthquake-ravaged Haiti could grow at an average rate of 8 per cent in the coming years, provided the international community comes to its aid, the IMF chief said yesterday.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said the IMF believes “that it’s possible to obtain over the coming five years an average rate of growth of 8 per cent … which will lead to a GDP (gross domestic product) per capita of $1,000.”

He said that estimate is around 50 per cent higher than what the fund had forecast prior to the Jan. 12 earthquake in the impoverished Caribbean country. The 7.0-magnitude quake killed as many 300,000 people and left another 1.2 million homeless.

“That’s possible, but condition one is to have the Haitian authorities really in the driver’s seat,” he told reporters after addressing a one-day conference that the United Nations hopes will raise nearly $4 billion for Haiti.

Strauss-Kahn added that the Haitians would need immediate financial aid to plug a hole in their budget.

“Everybody is talking about reconstruction and medium term, and that’s right and we share this view,” he said. “But there will be no medium term if there is no short term. And in the short term the question is the financing gap in the budget.”

The IMF estimates that the shortfall in the Haitian budget amounts to some $320 million, Strauss-Kahn said. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told the UN conference his country was seeking $350 million over the next six months.