[NYTr] Cuba Expects 10 Percent Growth in '07

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via The Motley Fool - Nov 27, 2007
http://www.fool.com/news/associated-press/2007/11/27/cuba-expects-10-percent-growth-in-07.aspx

Cuba Expects 10 Percent Growth in '07

By Associated Press

Cuba's economy should grow by 10 percent in 2007, the third straight
year of double-digit expansion, despite slips in the tourism sector,
according to Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez.

Speaking at a meeting of economists, Rodriguez said gross domestic
product on the communist-run island would rise by 10 percent this year,
reiterating a prediction he made in February.

The event Monday was closed to international media, but Rodriguez's
comments were reported Tuesday by the official National Information
Agency.

The report provided few details about what is fueling growth, citing
only general increases in industrial and agricultural production. Cuba
includes state spending on social and health care programs when
calculating its growth rates, a methodology that makes its figures
difficult to compare with those of other countries.

Cuba has transformed its economy since the collapse of the Soviet
Union, once its chief supporter and trade partner, at the start of the
1990s.

Aided by high prices for the copper, nickel and cobalt its mines
produce, the island's government reported economic growth of 12.5
percent in 2006 and 11 percent in 2005.

Tourism is the chief source of revenue, but the number of overseas
visitors declined through June of this year as compared to 2006 _ a
year that saw a slight slip from the 2.2 million visitors in 2005.

Venezuela provides nearly 100,000 daily barrels of oil to the island in
exchange for Cuban social services, but Rodriguez said this country
still feels the pinch of rising oil prices on world markets.

"We will have to confront complex situations like ever higher prices
for oil, which require a strict policy to save fuel," Rodriguez was
quoted as saying. He also promised increased state spending on the
energy sector.