Have you seen any economic news coming out of Cuba recently?  With barely a couple of exceptions, if you read the U.S. Corporate Media, likely you have not.  Searching for the most recent articles on Cuba’s economy from mainstream sources just now, I find nothing in the Washington Post about Cuba’s economy since May 2022; nothing from the New York Times since a piece in April rehashing the usual litany of Cuba’s long-known economic failures; silence at CBS since a piece in April quoting a Cuban official as “blam[ing] the U.S. for exodus of migrants, economic issues”; nothing from CNN since a March article discussing “power cuts and food shortages.”  And so forth.  OK, Cuba’s economy has performed poorly for decades, ever since Castro’s revolution 65 years ago.  We already knew that.  But are there any important new developments we should know about?  

There are no meaningful official economic data coming out of the Cuban government itself.  But we might try the World Bank data site as the next best option.  There we will find data that is neither unusual nor alarming — although it is undoubtedly completely false.  Per capita GDP is given as $9,499.60 as of 2020, with no explanation of why there has been no update in the last four years.  The $9500 figure is not all that different from, for example, the World Bank’s 2023 estimate for China of $12,614.  Also at the World Bank’s data site, we find that Cuba’s GDP grew (supposedly) by 1.8% in 2022; that its unemployment rate is a remarkably low 1.2% as of 2023; that its population experienced a small decline from about 11.4 million in 2018 to 11.2 million in 2023; and that it had net out-migration of about 6,000 people in 2023.

I last wrote about the economic situation in Cuba about a month ago.  The news I could find then already made the World Bank “data” appear ridiculous.  Since then, more facts have dribbled out to make Cuba look like a full-on disaster.

If you are inclined to believe that the World Bank might know what it is talking about, you might try this very brief (barely over 300 words) piece from Reuters on September 30.  Suddenly, the headline and lede sentence describe Cuba’s economy as “devastated” and “bankrupt.”  Excerpt:

Cuba is suffering an unprecedented economic crisis. In the last month, the government has said more than one million people - around 10% of its population - are without running water. The majority of the population endures several hours of blackouts each day. Food, fuel and medicine shortages are nearly universal. . . .  More than one million Cubans have left the Caribbean island since 2020, a record-breaking exodus that has contributed to a crisis at the U.S. border.