The Cuban Economy in the Last Decade: Balance and Outlook

Abstract

In the last decade, the Cuban economy has faced formidable difficulties. A host of external and internal adversities have imposed an enormous human cost on our nation and prevented the timely implementation of the program to update the social and economic model outlined in 2011 at the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, validated through intense debate across Cuban society, turned into a law of the State and a political program at the 7th Congress of the Party in 2016, incorporated into the Constitution in 2019, and amended in 2021. A balance of the evolution of the Cuban economy during the last decade is required to properly reaffirm the historical potential — opportunities, obstacles, and requisite economic and social policy adjustments — for Cuban revolutionary socialism to persist through the juncture and advance to higher stages of development.