|
In his address to participants in
the National Assembly of the People's Power underway at Havana’s
Convention Center, the president of the Commission for Economic
Affairs said that the challenge Cuba will face in 2010 will not be
smaller than the one it confronted with during the current year,
"but we have, he said, a profound revolution, based on social
justice”.
Martinez described as a real deed
the maintenance of national stability and social
achievements, despite the severe limitations posed by the
international economic and financial crisis, the U.S. blockade and
the effects of the 2008 hurricanes.
Cuba’s infant mortality rate of 4.7
per one thousand live births, the maintenance of life expectancy at
78 years and the effective struggle against the A-H1N1 virus were
highlighted by the legislator among the nation’s achievements
despite pitfalls.
Also, the strengthening of the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, of which Cuba is a founding
member, and the deepening of relations with China, were among other
positive aspects of the year about to end, during which the economy
registered a small growth of 1.4 percent.
Martinez also reported that it was
necessary to revise expenditures planned for the country in order
not to pay more than what revenues allowed, and to review
investments to concentrate them on activities that provided income
in that currency and replace imports.
The 4.3 percent increase in milk
production and therefore the saving in imports of 2,300 tons of
powdered milk, as well as the four percent decrease in the use of
fuel with a saving of 70 million dollars for the reduction of
electricity consumption in the state sector were also areas
highlighted by the deputy.
He explained that for the coming
year it will be necessary to continue the policy of
replacing imports, particularly food, while fuel consumption should
not increase, with greater discipline in the investment plan, among
other actions.
Martinez noted that, at a world
level, the economic growth will be negative in about one percent,
while in Latin America, only half of the countries, including Cuba,
registered increases in their GDP’s, and that there are nations,
like Mexico, for example, registering a 6.7 percent decrease.
According to the report, the
country's budget at the end of the year had a deficit below the 826
million pesos that had been anticipated, and represented 4.8 percent
of the GDP, below that of 2008.
A reduction of 3.5 percent of the
GDP in the budgetary deficit is expected by 2010, as a result of the
reduction of running expenditures of the budgeted activity and of
loss compensations, and the non-financing of investments in
enterprises, among other measures.
Previously, Marino Murillo,
Minister of Planning and the Economy, presented the report on the
execution of the budget in 2009 and the guidelines for the country's
Economic and Social Plan for 2010, which was followed by a debate on
the subject by the legislators, who in general called for a greater
saving of resources and increased productivity and efficiency.
|
