es, have broadened legal consumption
alternatives and reduced black market prices. Government efforts to
lower subsidies to unprofitable enterprises and to shrink the money
supply caused the semi-official exchange rate for the Cuban peso to
move from a peak of 120 to the dollar in the summer of 1994 to 23 to
the dollar by yearend 1997. New taxes introduced in 1996 helped drive
down the number of self-employed workers from 208,000 in January 1996
to 176,000 by September 1997. Havana announced in 1995 that GDP
declined by 35% during 1989-93, the result of lost Soviet aid and
domestic inefficiencies. The drop in GDP apparently halted in 1994,
when Cuba reported 0.7% growth, followed by increases of 2.5% in 1995
and 7.8% in 1996. Growth slowed again in 1997, to 2.5%, in part due to
a poor sugar harvest. Export earnings declined 3% in 1997, to $1.9
billion, the result of lower sugar export volume and lower world
prices for nickel and sugar. Imports remained unchanged in 1997 at
$3.2 billion. Tourism plays a key role in foreign currency earnings.
The disparity between those at the top of the ladder and those at the
bottom has increased markedly in the past 10 years. Living standards
for the average Cuban remain at a depressed level compared with 1990.

GDP: purchasing power parity-$16.9 billion (1997 est.)

GDP-real growth rate: 2.5% (1997 est.)

GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$1,540 (1997 est.)

GDP-composition by sector:
agriculture: 7.6%
industry: 34.8%
services: 57.6% (1996 est.)

Inflation rate-consumer price index: NA%

Labor force:
total: 4.5 million economically active population (1996 est.)
by occupation: services and government 30%, industry 22%, agriculture
20%, commerce 11%, construction 10%, transportation and communications
7% (June 1990)
note: state sector 76%, non-state sector 24% (1996 est.)

Unemployment rate: 8% (1996 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $NA
expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Industries: sugar, petroleum, food, tobacco, textiles, chemicals,
paper and wood products, metals (particularly nickel), cement,
fertilizers, consumer goods, agricultural machinery

Industrial production growth rate: 6% (1995 est.)

Electricity-capacity: 3.988 million kW (1995)

Electricity-production: 10.105 billion kWh (1995)

Electricity-consumption per capita: 924 kWh (1995)

Agriculture-products: sugarcane, tobacco, citrus, coffee, rice,
potatoes and other tubers, beans; l