Anyway, according to the statistics of 1997 the indicator of GDP was $16.9 billion, so the real growth rate made up 2.5%. Industrial sector contained 34.8% of gross domestic product in comparison with 7.6% of agriculture sector and 57.6% of service sector. The year of 1996 registered 4.5 million of workers. 20% of them were involved in agriculture, 22% of them were working in the industrial sector, and the commercial sector was 11%.

When talking about main industries we are to mention petroleum, sugar, tobacco, chemicals, textiles, metals, cement.

Agricultural products in Cuba do necessarily include citrus, rice, sugarcane, tobacco and livestock. In the year 1997 there were $1.9 billion goods exported. Canada, Netherlands and Russia are among the main Cuba’s export partners. Just to compare, there was $3.2 billion goods imported into the country from Mexico, Spain, and Russia mainly.

One of the most significant facts in Cuba economy is its dual character. One of them is the economy consisting of the Peso which applied mostly to employment, education, health care, food and property matters. And another one characterized by the usage of dollar which is connected with tourist industry, international sectors and export sectors.

Certain market oriented reforms took place in 1993. After this year Cuba opened doors to tourism, legalized dollar and permit foreign investments. Due to this we have to mention that government has put under control employment issues and production means. For instance, it has declared that any foreign company is able to hire workers only through the agencies of the state.
It should be also mentioned that Cuba is also able to get the money from remittances performed by the families in the USA. In other words, Cuba economy gets over $800 million and 60% of the population who have access to dollars as a result.

On the other hand, Cuba has to pay a high price for foreign financing because of the fact that it was not able to give back its international debts. So there was a necessity to take a loan for a short period of time.

Besides, tourism plays a significant role in the Cuba economy as the notion of “Tourist Apartheid” was quite popular in the 1990s. They brought additional dollars to the economy and usually got better service than local Cubans.