Council of Ministers Examines Course of Cuban Economy

During the first half of this year, the performance of the Cuban economy was as predicted for 2017, informed today official daily Granma.

The newspaper said these data were given by Minister of Economy and Planning, Ricardo Cabrisas, in a meeting of the Council of Ministers led by Cuban president Raul Castro.

The minister considered that in order to comply with the plan, authorities work in the adoption of measures to guarantee prioritized activities that ensure the vitality of the economy.

He mentioned the projection of achieving 98 percent of the investment plan, while there persists a trend to concentrate abd plabn the greater levels of execution in the second half, determined by the arrival of imported supplies and the concretion of contracts.

Main agriculture productions report favorable performances and those of vegetables and root crops exceed the plan. It does not happen the same with milk and beef production, whose indicators did not reach the planned amounts.

Transportation was affected in cargo, above all in the railway system. Raw sugar production rose by 20 percent compared to last year, but it still fell short by 300 thousand tons.

About tourism, they explained that at the closing of May, the amount of visitors exceeded two million 260 thousand, showing 209 percent growth compared to the same period of 2016.

They explained that drought impacts negatively in the results of this Plan. At the end of May, the water reserves for the population were at 43 percent and those destined to ensure rice production were at 27 percent of their capacity.

Such a situation impacts all the country, although it is more severe in the central provinces of Ciego de Avila, Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara and CamagÃ'ey.

The Eastern territory is more affected by lack of rainfall, mainly Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas, where the incidence of drought reaches three years.

Members of the Council of Ministers approved the report on the march of the economy at the closing of the first semester of 2017, which will be presented at the next session of the People's Power National Assembly, summoned for July 14.