By Pascal Fletcher
HAVANA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Socialist Cuba has survived U.S. pressure and recession because it stands apart from "chaotic'' global capitalism and thus escaped the International Monetary Fund (IMF) "executioner,'' President Fidel Castro said.
Castro said that Cuba's freedom from the IMF meant that it could endure 40 years of hostility from the United States, including a trade embargo and a severe economic crisis triggered by the collapse of the Soviet bloc after 1990.
Castro gave the speech Friday night but excerpts were published Saturday by Cuban news agencies.
``We were able to survive because we don't belong to the IMF,'' the 73-year-old Cuban leader told economists at a ``Globalization and Development Problems'' conference in Havana.
Castro said Cuba, by maintaining state ownership and control of its economy and a socialist system of distribution, had been better protected against the financial shocks that have shaken the increasingly globalized world economic system.
As Cuba has no stock market and all its banks are in state hands, it suffered none of the capital flight that hit developing nations in the 1998/1999 world financial crisis.
``Not a single dollar escapes in our country,'' he said.
Castro suggested the world could learn from this.
``The ideal thing would be not that Cuba should join the process of globalization, but that globalization should join Cuba,'' he said.
Castro slammed the Washington-based IMF as ``the executioner which pulls the string so that the guillotine's blade falls on the heads of Third World nations.'' He was referring to the IMF's tough economic reform programmes for developing countries.
``We are not dependent in any degree of any international institution,'' Castro added, noting that Cuba did not belong to the World Bank either.
He described the IMF as the ``backbone'' of the current globalized economic system, which he said was ``unsustainable.'' ``The world is a colossal madness and chaos reigns,'' he added.
The Cuban leader said that Cuba's economic model had ``worked'' and that 40 years of socialist revolution had made the country ``extraordinarily powerful.''
``We've had the privilege of seeing 10 U.S. governments grow old while waiting for Cuba's revolution to collapse,'' he said.
``We've spent 40 years sharing out our wealth as fairly as possible,'' he added, referring to a subsidised state rationing system which provides Cubans with minimum basic foodstuffs with mixed success.
Cuba says its economy is now emerging from recession and announced gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.2 percent for 1999. Cuban officials said this had been achieved largely through an improved sugar crop and continued tourism growth.
But some foreign analysts feel the growth figure given is too high and say the island still faces serious problems.
Castro said Cuba could not live in ``a crystal vase'' and said the country had made ``openings,'' such as allowing in foreign tourism and investment over the last decade.
But he made clear this process had clear limits determined by national interest. ``Our opening is designed by hand and occupies just the space that most suits the country,'' he said.
12:57 01-29-00
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