MADRID, Spain. – “February was another tense month for the economy,” the regime’s authorities acknowledged in a recent meeting of the Council of Ministers.
According to the official news media Cubadebate, when evaluating the economy’s performance during the past month, Cuban officials stated that the goals for rice production were not met, neither were they for bovine or pork production.
“The best income-generating exports,” stated Assistant Prime Minister, Alejandro Gil Fernández, “were rum, lobster, shrimp and other fish products, honey and nickel,” products that are mostly inaccessible to the average Cuban.
According to Gil Fernández, actual growth is more evident in agricultural production.
“When we compare [other sectors] with the levels reached by the collection of agricultural products in the first two months of 2021, today we have collected 77,378 more tons, an amount that still falls short in satisfying demand. However, one can notice the presence of products in the markets and greater stability in the supply, which is basic in order to control inflation,” he added.
At the closing of February, the country showed 439 companies operating at a loss; while in January 2021, 457 Cuban companies closed with losses, 446 of them within the state entrepreneurial system.
Aa far as the tourism sector, it was pointed out that during the month of February, there were 99,223 tourists in the island, only 66.3% of the numbers projected.
In spite of these numbers, and in spite of the fact that tourism is not recovering since the reopening of the country’s borders last November 15th, Cuban authorities insisted once again that they would meet the goal of welcoming 2.5 million international visitors during 2022.
Inflation was also mentioned, and “the irrational prices in both the state sector and the non-state sector.”
According to the country’s leadership, measures will be adopted “in order to prevent abuse.”
“Abuse cannot be allowed, it’s one thing for prices to increase in relation to the increase in the price of imports, and quite another to take advantage of shortages and try to make twice, thrice or even four times more than [a fair price]. (…) We have to work at the grassroots, where the economy is applied, where products are being sold at exorbitant prices,” stated the Assistant Prime Minister.
However, most of Cuba’s population blames the government as the sole culprit of this inflation, of the economic crisis, of the high prices and the general shortages.
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