Cuban Economy

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Cuba and the Cuban Economy Introduction The Republic of Cuba or Cuba (as it is popularly known) is a Latin American island nation located in the northern Caribbean region where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It is the largest and the second most populous island in the Caribbean region with a population of around 11.38 million people. A developing country with a planned economy dominated by state-owned enterprises and exports, Cuba, is a Marxist-Leninist nation. The country ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care and education. Cuba has a dual economy, with two distinct systems operating simultaneously. The socialist peso economy- applying to most Cubans, providing…show more content…
Cuba compared favorably with Spain and Portugal on socioeconomic measures. By the 1950s Cuba was as rich per capita as Italy was and richer than Japan. During the Revolution (revolt led by Fidel Castro against the authoritarian government under US-backed Cuban President Fulgencio Batista) between 1953 and 1959, Cuba was one of the few developing countries providing foreign aid to other countries. Towards the end of 1985, 35,000 Cuban workers had helped build projects in some 20 Asian, African and Latin American countries. The revolution reshaped Cuba's relationship with the United States. A commercial, economic, and financial embargo was imposed on Cuba by the United States. First imposed in 1960 (almost two years after the Batista regime was deposed by the Cuban Revolution), the U.S. placed an embargo on exports to Cuba except for food and medicine after Cuba nationalized American-owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation. In 1962 the embargo was extended to include almost all…show more content…
The Bank is headed by a single president (currently, Ernesto Medina Villaveirán) and 5 vice presidents. Apart from being responsible for the supervision of all the financial institutions and representative offices of foreign banking institutions in the country, the Central Bank of Cuba performs other classical apex bank functions including- issuing of national currency and seeking its stability, keeping custody of the country’s international reserves, proposing and implementing a monetary policy and ensuring normal internal and external payment operations among others . Besides the aforementioned classical functions, the bank undertakes other initiatives: to improve the monetary system; normalise the external financial relations of the country –including the foreign debt issue- and support credit management of banks integrating the national system and of Cuban enterprises by means of bilateral contacts with other central banks, export credit insurance companies and other official and private financial
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