FRFI 196 April/May 2007

Cuban economy grows

In 2006, Cuba’s economy grew by 12.5%, the largest growth in the 48 years of the Revolution and the highest for this period in Latin America. It reflects the steady growth of the economy since 2004.

Particularly significant has been the reorientation of the economy towards services, which now account for nearly three quarters of all exports and receive 68% of total investments. The economy has also been buoyed by the upsurge in trade with Latin America, in particular with revolutionary Venezuela, as well as with China, which provides Cuba with considerable technological input. Ministers also highlighted the country’s developing control over the exchange rate and the elimination of the dollar from circulation .

As a result, Cuba has been able to:
• develop its energy programme, reducing black-outs;
• improve food production and distribution, despite shortfalls in agricultural production, in part due to severe hurricanes in the last year;
• complete 110,000 new homes in 2006 with a further 70,000 planned next year, and allocate resources for the repair and preservation of a further 150,000;
• maintain its programme for repairing and upgrading hospitals and polyclinics;
• continue its international medical missions, including Operation Milagro, which has restored sight to thousands of Venezuelans;
• increase university education by 600,000 students in the last year;
• develop the biotechnical sector, with Cuban biotechnical products now being marketed in over 50 countries.
Illiteracy remained at 0.2%. and unemployment was 1.9%.

As Jose Luis Rodriguez, minister of economy and planning, explained, economic growth and social advance have to go hand in hand: ‘This new focus [of the economy] has allowed for maximum results with minimum resources, maintaining social solidarity and assuring development via the creation of indispensable human capital, which requires an economy based on knowledge’.
An increase of 10% in GDP is expected this year, with 22.6% of GDP allocated to health and education budgets.

Ricardo Alarcon, President of the National Assembly, praised the achievements of the Cuban people: ‘We are ending a year that saw undeniable social advances, even though aggression against Cuba has been intensified by the US government. We have the right to be proud of what we have achieved and of our capacity for resistance, to build a project that little by little is being recognised throughout the world.’

However, he pointed out that none of these achievements justify errors committed as a result of incompetence and lack of rigour. This is a point stressed by Raul Castro, who has called for a debate on inefficiency, corruption and lack of organisation in state management. The army, headed by Raul Castro, which runs some of the most efficient companies in Cuba, has joined the debate, calling for the application of perfeccionamiento empresario, a perfecting of the state company system. Raul Castro has urged the Cuban media to be more critical of state companies and instructed academics to study social economic problems, arguing ‘We are tired of excuses in this revolution’. Cuba goes forward into 2007 with the task of building on its economic and social successes by making socialism even more efficient, the better to meet the needs of the Cuban people.

Cat Wiener