Economy

Cuba opens up its economy to private businesses – BBC News

Published

4 years ago

February 6, 2021

Getty Images

Cuba has announced it will allow private businesses to operate in most industries, in what is a major reform to its state-controlled economy.

Labour Minister Marta Elena Feito said the list of authorised industries had expanded from 127 to more than 2,000.

Only a minority of industries would be reserved for the state, she said.

The communist country’s economy has been hit hard by the pandemic and US sanctions introduced by the Trump administration.

Last year its economy shrank by 11% – its worst decline in almost three decades – and Cubans have been facing shortages of basic goods.

Ms Feito said just 124 industries would be exempt from private involvement. She did not mention which ones, but the AFP suggest it could be related to industries considered strategic to the state such as media, health and defence.

“That private work continues to develop, is the objective of this reform,” Ms Feito said, stressing that this “will help free the productive forces” of the private sector.

Apart from hundreds of thousands of small farms, Cuba’s non-state sector is composed mainly of small private businesses run by artisans, taxi drivers and tradesmen.

Almost 40% of private businesses operate in the island’s tourist industry, which has been hard hit by the pandemic and sanctions.

Some 60 years of hostility between the US and Cuba were eased in 2015 when then US President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro agreed to normalise relations, allowing US citizens to visit the island and empowering local businesses.

But Obama’s efforts were rolled back by his successor, President Donald Trump, with the support of hawkish Cuban-Americans who saw Mr Obama’s historic opening as an appeasement of Castro’s communist regime.

New US President Joe Biden – who was Barack Obama’s vice-president – has previously signalled that he wants to improve US-Cuban relations but observers say it is not clear how high it might be on his priority list.

Around the BBC

Castro’s people – a photographic tour through Cuba

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

Economy

PBO projects deficit exceeded Liberals’ $40B pledge, economy to rebound in 2025

Published

1 day ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.

However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.

The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.

The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.

The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

Source link

Economy

Statistics Canada says levels of food insecurity rose in 2022

Published

2 days ago

October 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.

In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.

The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.

Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.

In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.

It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.

Source link

Economy

Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales fell 1.3% to $69.4B in August

Published

2 days ago

October 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.

The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.

The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.

Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.

Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.

Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

Source link