Cuba downgrades 2014 GDP forecast to 1.4 percent

Cuba downgrades 2014 GDP forecast to 1.4 percent

June 23, 2014



HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has revised its 2014 economic growth forecast

downward to 1.4 percent, Communist Party newspaper Granma said Monday,

nearly a point off previous projections of 2.2 percent.



Economy Minister Adel Yzquierdo attributed the downgrade to lagging

foreign income, adverse climatic conditions and "internal

insufficiencies that our economy continues to confront," Granma said.



The downgrade came in a midyear report by the Council of Ministers.



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President Raul Castro acknowledged that the adjusted figure shows Cuba's

economy is not growing at the desired pace, according to Granma.



Yzquierdo said officials predict growth for the first half of 2014 will

come in at just 0.6 percent, and "greater dynamism in the second

semester" is needed.



Cuba says GDP grew 2.7 percent last year.



In 2010, Castro said Cuba's economy was in a critical situation and

began implementing a package of economic reforms. They have included

decentralizing state-owned enterprises, legalizing real-estate and

used-car markets and allowing more people to legally go into business

for themselves.



The czar of the reforms, Vice President Marino Murillo, said in the

Ministers' gathering that 467,000 people have registered as

small-business owners or employees. Some 498 nonagricultural

cooperatives have been licensed.



Source: Cuba downgrades 2014 GDP forecast to 1.4 percent - Businessweek

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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2014-06-23/cuba-downgrades-2014-gdp-forecast-to-1-dot-4-percent