Economy-overview: The state plays the primary role in the economy and controls practically all foreign trade. The government has undertaken several reforms in recent years to stem excess liquidity, increase labor incentives, and alleviate serious shortages of food, consumer goods, and services. The liberalized agricultural markets introduced in October 1994, at which state and private farmers sell above-quota production at unrestricted prices, have broadened legal consumption alternatives and reduced black market prices. Government efforts to lower subsidies to unprofitable enterprises and to shrink the money supply caused the semi-official exchange rate for the Cuban peso to move from a peak of 120 to the dollar in the summer of 1994 to 23 to the dollar by yearend 1997. New taxes introduced in 1996 helped drive down the number of self-employed workers from 208,000 in January 1996 to 176,000 by September 1997. Havana announced in 1995 that GDP declined by 35% during 1989-93, the result of lost Soviet aid and domestic inefficiencies. The drop in GDP apparently halted in 1994, when Cuba reported 0.7% growth, followed by increases of 2.5% in 1995 and 7.8% in 1996. Growth slowed again in 1997, to 2.5%, in part due to a poor sugar harvest. Export earnings declined 3% in 1997, to $1.9 billion, the result of lower sugar export volume and lower world prices for nickel and sugar. Imports remained unchanged in 1997 at $3.2 billion. Tourism plays a key role in foreign currency earnings. The disparity between those at the top of the ladder and those at the bottom has increased markedly in the past 10 years. Living standards for the average Cuban remain at a depressed level compared with 1990.
GDP: purchasing power parity-$16.9 billion (1997 est.)
GDP-real growth rate: 2.5% (1997 est.)
GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$1,540 (1997 est.)
GDP-composition by sector: agriculture: 7.6% industry: 34.8% services: 57.6% (1996 est.)
Inflation rate-consumer price index: NA%
Labor force: total: 4.5 million economically active population (1996 est.) by occupation: services and government 30%, industry 22%, agriculture 20%, commerce 11%, construction 10%, transportation and communications 7% (June 1990) note: state sector 76%, non-state sector 24% (1996 est.)
Unemployment rate: 8% (1996 est.)
Budget: revenues: $NA expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA
Industries: sugar, petroleum, food, tobacco, textiles, chemicals, paper and wood products, metals (particularly nickel), cement, fertilizers, consumer goods, agricultural machinery