In the midst of a complex scenario, in which achieving macroeconomic stability in Cuba is essential, the most recent meeting of the Council of Ministers included in its agenda the evaluation of multiple issues that have a direct impact on the achievement of that purpose.
When referring to them, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, described them as "very important", taking into account their expression not only in the macroeconomy, but also in our society.
In this regard, he referred, among other issues, to how the economic complexities that the nation is going through have repercussions, for example, in the delays that have manifested during the last few months in the delivery of the regulated family basket; the instability in the National Electric System; the inadequate relationship that is sometimes established between the state and non-state sectors, as well as the excessive increase in prices, which is not always a product of supply and demand, and is a totally speculative matter.
In his words during the meeting, which was led by the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, the Head of State insisted on the need to seek answers to these and other problems, many of them directly related to the bureaucracy and inefficient control that we are carrying out from our institutional system, which is limiting creative work and leads to unwanted distortions in our society.
He also reflected on the importance of becoming aware, everywhere, of the depth and scope of the negative trends and, above all, of the way in which we have to implement the government projections designed to deal with them.
He recalled that, in addition, the work priorities defined by the Party are to strengthen unity, perfect the ideological work and ensure the execution of the economic measures proposed by the Government to eliminate distortions and negative tendencies.
These are priorities, he affirmed, which "are interrelated and go towards the same objectives to achieve the macroeconomic stabilization that we need, which is the most important thing at this time".
In addition to this, he added, what we have to do in the medium and long term to achieve sustainability in all that we have proposed, and to eliminate the causes, at least our own, the internal ones, not those that are strongly caused by the blockade.
Referring to the priority that must be given to reducing the budget deficit, President Díaz-Canel emphasized the importance of the budget deficit.
Díaz-Canel emphasized the importance of "having more control over expenditures", and even canceling a group of them that cannot be executed today.
Related to this issue, he also referred to "the excessive payments that the state sector is making to the non-state or private sector", and insisted on giving more participation to state enterprises when contracting services, as long as they are able to do so efficiently.
Later, he referred to the steps that have been taken to strengthen the process of bankarization, as well as the role that must be played at the territorial level to counteract tax evasion, "so that not a penny of the State budget escapes".
In view of the need to continue looking for answers to the dissatisfactions that exist in many places, the President reflected on the "very good experiences of work collectives that, with their leadership, do things differently and move forward, and what we need to do, I repeat once again, is to turn those good experiences into rules".
Those thousands of examples that are all over the country, he said, "are the ones to be followed, the ones to be promoted; those are the examples to be multiplied, and each one has them in their own areas. Each one of us, then, should encourage them to multiply, with the conviction that we are all here to save the Revolution and to save socialism".
Particularly, regarding the status of the implementation of the measures approved in the Government's projections to correct distortions and boost the economy during 2024, an issue evaluated monthly by the Council of Ministers, and which on this occasion included the presentation of a new group of measures, the President insisted on working consciously, with commitment and with a lot of control.
These measures, explained Mildrey Granadillo de la Torre, First Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, seek, in essence, to correct macroeconomic imbalances; to increase foreign currency inflows to the country through different channels and concepts; to encourage national production, with emphasis on food production; and to organize the operation of non-state management.
According to his explanation, among the main actions are to adjust the 2024 Plan and Budget to the "war economy" conditions; reduce the Budget items with the objective of reducing the 2024 fiscal deficit, based on the non-execution; define requirements in the budgeted activity for the use of the approved Budget, and centralize the power of approval; allocate financial resources monthly in correspondence with the actual revenues of the month; calculate the fiscal impact of imports of non-state management forms; grant tariff benefits, including exemptions, for the import of raw materials and inputs for production, as well as finalize the tax system for e-commerce.
Among other measures, a single, inclusive and equal pricing policy will be established for all subjects of the economy, including both the state and non-state sectors; regulations will be implemented to limit the profit in the purchase of products and payments for services and inputs made by the state sector to the non-state sector; It will be necessary to promote linkage and not to cede productive capacities; the process of elaboration of the Plan for the Economy and the State Budget for 2025 will begin, based on the approval of the Global Model and the Government Directives conceived for this process; and progress will be made in the implementation of an action plan to solve the existing problems in the process of bankarization.
These and other decisions approved, said the First Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, have "an integral character and are based on the complex situation existing in the economy".
The actions have been focused, she said, on "advancing in the macroeconomic stabilization of the country, a complex process that requires coordination and alignment among the global economic organizations.
"In this sense, perfecting the planning mechanisms, the relations between the actors of the economy, the attraction of financing, eliminating tax evasion, and increasing production, are necessary actions in this process", he pointed out.
The Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, considered that this is an important step, which includes measures associated with a higher stage in the implementation of projections on macroeconomic issues, with impacts on sensitive issues for the population.
He also mentioned that a report is currently being prepared which includes the main results of the actions that have been implemented since December last year to date, as well as the dissatisfactions that exist in some aspects. This document will be evaluated by
various party and government bodies to finally be presented to the deputies of the National Assembly of People's Power in the next session.
ECONOMIC PLAN AND STATE BUDGET
Another issue of vital importance to advance in the necessary macroeconomic balance of the country is closely linked to the design of the Plan of the Economy and the State Budget for 2025, for whose preparation process the Council of Ministers approved the Global Model and the Government Directives which, unlike previous years, had among its premises that of taking as a reference an estimate of the closing of the year 2024, and not the approved Plan and the State Budget.
Taking into account that the resources demanded in the economy exceed those generated, the following general objectives were established: increase national productions; implement strategies and manage the increase of income from exports, dynamize the flow of foreign direct investment in the economy, greater attraction of remittances and the identification of other necessary sources of financing; the greatest possible containment of all current expenses; postpone and even paralyze investments that are not essential at this stage; boost fiscal income; restrict current and capital expenses of the budgeted sector, as much as possible, as well as reduce the transfer of resources to the business sector.
Speaking on this point, the general secretary of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, pointed out the importance of granting workers' collectives the widest participation in the shaping of economic plans and budgets. This will allow, he said, "to bring autonomy closer and closer to the place where the economic fact is generated".
The Prime Minister stressed that, in the midst of the war economy scenario in which the country operates, "it is when we most need to plan and it is when we most need to exercise control".
Among other ideas, Marrero Cruz stressed the objectivity with which the Economic Plan and the State Budget should be prepared: "objectivity does not mean planning the impossible, but neither does it mean not planning all those things that we could achieve, even with the difficulties and the complex scenario we are going through".
Hence his insistence on developing a collective work and "having well identified the distortions, in order to eliminate them and look for answers to them". All this implies, he reflected, having updated local development strategies, as well as being able to take advantage of "the collective intelligence potential of our workers, and to think together what else we can do, what solutions we are going to look for".
The Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso Vázquez, then informed about the behavior of the economy at the end of 2023, which shows a decrease with respect to the previous year, and the estimate for the first semester of 2024.
The first of these topics will be presented during the next ordinary session of the National Assembly of People's Power, where it will be debated by the deputies. Regarding the second, Alonso Vázquez commented that the situation continues to be complex, and insisted on the need to evaluate the causes of what has been happening in the economy, in order to act on what we should do in the second half of the year.
In particular, regarding the results of the economy in the first six months of the year, the Minister of Economy and Planning detailed that, during the semester, exports in items such as mechanized tobacco, coal, lobster, elver and other fishery products, as well as biopharmaceuticals, were fulfilled. Meanwhile, production of nickel, honey, twisted and raw tobacco fell short of the figures forecast for the semester.
In the particular case of the export of services, he said that in the period telecommunications services decreased, and medical and tourism services grew. It is estimated that 1,321,900 visitors will arrive in the country by the end of the first semester of the year, he said.
After the presentation of the report, which evaluates the non-compliance that is manifested due to the economic difficulties in several indicators of Plan 2024 and its impact in several areas of the economy, Alonso Vázquez Joaquín considered that, "more than framing ourselves in what happened during the first six months of the year, it is important to evaluate the causes to focus on what we must do in the second half of the year".
Also, during the meeting, the members of the Council of Ministers were informed of the report on the execution of the State Budget at the end of April 2024, and approved the proposed actions to be taken in order to modify its behavior, marked by a high fiscal deficit.
Likewise, the Minister of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro Ale, presented the report on the Liquidation of the 2023 State Budget, together with an action plan to solve the deficiencies detected during this process.
At the conclusion of the debate, the highest Government body agreed to submit this Budget Liquidation report to the consideration of the National Assembly of People's Power, at its July session, for its analysis and approval.
Following this item, the Comptroller General of the Republic, Gladys Bejerano Portela, reported on the control actions carried out during the preparation of the 2024 State Budget and the Liquidation of the 2023 Budget.
