CNN. March 17, 2000. Web posted at: 6:01 PM EST (2301 GMT)
HAVANA -- Cuba's leaders have called for fuel-saving measures and cuts in energy imports to offset a financial squeeze caused by high oil prices and low prices for sugar, the main traditional export, state media said on Friday.
"We have to save fuel and reduce its import," Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage told local government officials in comments reported by the Communist Party daily, Granma.
Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez said high world oil prices and low world sugar prices had cost the Cuban economy $38 million in the first two months of this year alone. This represented additional spending and lost revenue that had not been planned for.
Lage said the government had set up a special commission, headed by Central Bank President Francisco Soberon, to draw up measures for a significant reduction in fuel imports for the second half of this year, and for next year. No details were given of what these measures might be.
Cuban President Fidel Castro also attended the meeting of heads of provincial local assemblies of the communist-ruled Caribbean island. Many of the participants cited fuel shortages affecting activities in their territories, Granma said.
The call for additional fuel-saving measures sounded a somber note at a time when Cuban leaders had been hailing signs of recovery in the economy, which was hit by a severe recession in the mid-1990s following the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
The deterioration in Cuba's terms of trade would mean an additional financial squeeze for the island, which is already burdened with an $11.2 billion international debt and a U.S. trade embargo that has been in place for the last 38 years.
The Cuban government has set an official growth target for this year of 4.0 percent to 4.5 percent after announcing that gross domestic product in 1999 grew 6.2 percent, one of the highest rates reported in Latin America.
Lage noted that world prices for nickel, traditionally Cuba's second most important merchandise export, had risen, while prices for strategic food imports remained generally low. But he said this did not compensate for the strong negative effect of the oil and sugar price movements.
Cuban officials have reported that the island's current 1999/2000 sugar harvest is generally progressing well and shows improvements in terms of efficiency and reduced costs.
But some local and foreign analysts believe that, with this year's fall in sugar prices to around 5 cents a pound, the Cuban industry may well be producing raw sugar at a loss, when measured in net hard currency terms. Sugar prices stood at 6.1 cents at the start of this year and at 8 cents a
pound in early 1998.
At the same time, high oil prices would add to Cuba's already big energy import bill, which has ranged around $1 billion in recent years.
Nevertheless, the government is increasingly banking on tourism, the island's fastest growing sector, to be the main motor of economic growth and development. Tourism is expected to bring in more than $2 billion this year.
The country can also count on Cubans living abroad to continue sending money home, a financial inflow estimated at about $500 million and possibly more each year.
Copyright 2000 Reuters
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