COMMUNIST CUBA RECORDS RUNAWAY INFLATION OF OVER 70%

HAVANA — Cuba will have an inflation rate of over 70 percent by the end of 2021, Economy Minister Alejandro Gil said on Tuesday.

Cuba’s economy shrank 10.9 percent in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic devastated the country’s tourism sector. This was further aggravated by harsh new sanctions imposed by the United States during the presidency of Donald Trump that withered foreign exchange.

Communist-run Cuba said it will move to control soaring prices and ease shortages as recovery from a pandemic-driven recession takes root, Gil told a year-end session of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Officials expect it to recoup just two percent in 2021.

WHAT DID GIL SAY?

Gil said “restoring the peso’s value and role in the economy” would be vital to reaching four percent growth next year.

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