A Viewer’s Guide to Cuba’s Economic Reform

Socialist Cuba is in the midst of an economic overhaul that follows a blueprint adopted by the Communist Party in 2011. If it succeeds, the economy will be more productive, fiscal and trade balances will be improved, and the government will put itself in a position to tackle longstanding challenges such as returning to a single-currency monetary system and remedying sharp inequalities in purchasing power. To get there, the plan calls for a larger private sector and greater economic freedom, a government that spends less and employs fewer people, and a sorting out of state enterprises that will likely result in many closures.

This study examines the roots of this economic reform, the plan itself, the public debate surrounding it, the actions to date in major sectors, and the political implications of far-reaching economic policy changes.

Read it here (pdf, 36 pages).