The "centralized" and "statist" economy in Cuba can lead to disaster, say experts

Miami, July 26 (EFEUSA) .- The Cuban economy continues to be "strangled" and "stagnated" by strong "centralization" and structural imbalances weighing on growth prospects, which should only be than about 1% in 2018, three economists attending a conference in Miami today

The reforms promoted by the then President Raul Castro, forced into the economic field, proved to be of little importance to take the country out of a situation of "structural imbalance", a reality that will face the new president of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

In this diagnosis three economists have agreed that they participated in the first conference of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Economics Cubana (ASCE), which is being held under the title "Cuba: After Raúl?"

With economic growth of about 2% in recent years, a high deficit Economic and economic development is impractical, said Omar Everleny Perez, economist at the Center for Economic Studies of Cuba.

Although the non-state sector generated between 30% and 30% of employment on the island "no new trade appears" nor wholesale market , or credits, and "low wages" affect productivity, says Everleny.

"Productivity can not grow when most employees earn," 75% of them hardly reach food ", conditions in which, he says," it is very difficult to progress towards development ".

He pointed out that one of the main remnants for economic growth are the current "bureaucratic trading system", its "strong centralization of decisions" and the "rigidity of the plans", with few of them. incentives and still, today, without "corporate law". [19659002Infatadiography The agricultural industry is devastating, with the lowest sugar harvest in its history (1.1 million tons for 2017-2018) and only 54 plants or factories in this sector, said Mario González. -Corzo, professor of economics at Lehman College, New York

Ineffective sugar production historical pillar of the Cuban industry, which has dropped 40% compared to 2017, added González-Corzo, who recalled that "in 1990 the island produced seven million tons.

According to this economist, the fall of the harvest is not attributable to the "adverse climatic conditions", as the Cuban government points out, but especially to the "poor quality of repairs (factories), bad equipment, mistakes and inefficient supply. "

"What remains to be exported when three quarters of the sugar crop are destined for domestic consumption?" He asked Gonzalez-Corzo

Little help also to the growth of the Cuban economy, he added, the small area devoted to agricultural cultivation, only 2.7 million hectares out of a total of 6.2 million, in a country of 11 million to the point that 80% of the food consumed on the island is imported, an indicator of "Cuba's reliance on food imports to survive".

These negative conditions add factors such as "low birth rate, aging population, inadequate wages and unsatisfactory working conditions", so we have a desperate picture.

The "decline" of the agricultural sector and the "inefficiency of a centralized and decapitalized sector" reduces the economic growth of the Caribbean country, whose only recovery is through "the expansion private property, freedom of employment and election For its part, Dagoberto Valdés, of the Center for Studies on Coexistence, warned of the "critical situation" of Cuba, which "Can lead to disaster". 19659002] The shortage of food, medicine and housing continues to "have an impact on Cuban daily life" due to a "centralized and state" economic model " despite the fact that" the private sector has demonstrated Wealth, "stressed Valdes