Cuba closes 2012 with a 3.1 percent growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and improvements in its trade balance, in a context marked by the global crisis and the blockade imposed by the United States.
During the year that is about to end, agriculture progressed two percent, manufacture industry 4.4 percent, transport and communications five percent, and commerce 5.9 percent, according to information reported in the capital during the final day of the 7th Legislature of the Parliament.
Constructions, although they increased compared with 2011, showed breaches that explain the impossibility to achieve the expected GDP growth (3.4 percent) and difficulties in investment, lower than what was planned in a 19 percent.
Despite these problems, the results are consistent with economic developments in the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, where there will be a growth similar to that in Cuba.
According to the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of People's Power, the significance of this scenario is that no country in the region supports the sanctions and obstacles of the Washington-applied blockade for more than 50 years.
A decline in imports and increase in exports of services, which improved the balance, the progress in domestic financial balance, a record number of tourists arrival (about 2,850,000), and the gradual debt payment are a 2012 positive outlook.
Also on the list are the growth of labor productivity by 2.1 percent and the compliance with fiscal deficit planned in the budget (3.8 percent).
Addressing the last session of the 7th Legislature, President Raul Castro praised the encouraging signs of economy, but with a call to leave behind gaps and enhance the development of the productive sphere.
According to the Economic Plan and State Budget approved by the Parliament for 2013, the GDP increased by 3.7 percent, close to the average expected in the region.