From Caribbean News Now

HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) — The Cuban gross domestic product grew 1.1 percent at the end of the first half of this year, when the county faced shortages in hard currency, said President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

In a speech in the National Assembly, the president said that the result “is encouraging in the midst of so many adverse factors.”

He argued that the tense situation in the external finances remains, due to the failure to meet planned revenues from exports, tourism and sugar production, as well as the harmful effects of recent weather events.

Diaz-Canel said that such circumstances caused an impact on the arrival of inputs and raw materials, while stressing, therefore, the need to adopt additional measures to control the main assurances of the plan in the second half of this year.

He called for more focused work on import issues and other foreign exchange expenditures, and for maximum use to be made of available resources, without forgoing planned objectives such as those related to development and basic services to the population.

According to the president, thus addressing this situation will allow the government to lay the foundations for making the 2019 economic plan objective, realistic and sustainable, based on solid and achievable foundations.

Díaz-Canel said a plan will be sought that will encourage, despite the difficulties, the continued development of priority programs in pursuit of growth and progress, as long as it contributes to the gradual restoration of the nation’s financial credibility.

IMAGE: Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (I), Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de Ministros, durante su intervención en la clausura del Primer Período Ordinario de Sesiones de la IX Legislatura de la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular (ANPP), en el Palacio de Convenciones de La Habana, el 22 de julio de 2018. ACN FOTO/ Abel PADRÓN PADILLA/ rrcc

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