Cuba Economy

Is Cuba a wealthy country?

The government continues to balance the need for loosening its socialist economic system against a desire for firm political control. In April 2011, the government held the first Cuban Communist Party Congress in almost 13 years, during which leaders approved a plan for wide-ranging economic changes. Since then, the government has slowly and incrementally implemented limited economic reforms, including allowing Cubans to buy electronic appliances and cell phones, stay in hotels, and buy and sell used cars. The government has cut state sector jobs as part of the reform process, and it has opened up some retail services to "self-employment," leading to the rise of so-called "cuentapropistas" or entrepreneurs. More than 500,000 Cuban workers are currently registered as self-employed.

The Cuban regime has updated its economic model to include permitting the private ownership and sale of real estate and new vehicles, allowing private farmers to sell agricultural goods directly to hotels, allowing the creation of non-agricultural cooperatives, adopting a new foreign investment law, and launching a "Special Development Zone" around the Mariel port.

Since 2016, Cuba has attributed slowed economic growth in part to problems with petroleum product deliveries from Venezuela. Since late 2000, Venezuela provided petroleum products to Cuba on preferential terms, supplying at times nearly 100,000 barrels per day. Cuba paid for the oil, in part, with the services of Cuban personnel in Venezuela, including some 30,000 medical professionals.

Cuba Economy Data

What is the GDP of Cuba?

Currency Name and Code Cuban pesos (CUP)
GDP - Gross Domestic Product (PPP) $137,000,000,000 (USD)
GDP - official exchange rate $77,150,000,000 (USD)
GDP - official exchange rate note note: data are in Cuban Pesos at CUP 1 = US$ Official Exchange Rate
GDP - real growth rate 1.3%
GDP Per Capita $11,600.00 (USD)
GDP by Sector- agriculture 3.9%
GDP by Sector- Industry 23%
GDP by Sector- services 72.2%
GDP - composition, by end use household consumption: 55.9%

government consumption: 34.2%

investment in fixed capital: 9.6%

investment in inventories: -0.1%

exports of goods and services: 17.5%

imports of goods and services: -17.1%
Inflation Rate 4.5%
Labor Force 5,117,000
Labor Force By Occupation- agriculture 18%
Labor Force By Occupation- industry 10%
Labor Force By Occupation- services 72%
Unemployment Rate 2.5%
Unemployment - note these are official rates; unofficial estimates are about double the official figures
Fiscal Year calendar year
Annual Budget $52,370,000,000 (USD)
Budget Surplus or Deficit - percent of GDP -8.1%
Public Debt (% of GDP) 32.7%
Taxes and other revenues - percent of GDP 67.9%
Major Industries petroleum, nickel, cobalt, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, construction, steel, cement, agricultural machinery, sugar
Industrial Growth Rate -0.2%
Agriculture Products sugar, tobacco, citrus, coffee, rice, potatoes, beans; livestock
Exchange Rate per US Dollar 1

Labor Force by Occupation- As reported by Cuba

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