Zitat von IPS

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ECONOMY-CUBA: "Impossible to Escape Impact" of Crisis – Experts
By Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Oct 22 (IPS) - After three years of high growth, uncertainty is hovering over the Cuban economy once again, although experts are not yet ready to predict exactly what impact the current global financial turmoil will have on the island.


The global crisis coincided with the worst natural disaster to hit this Caribbean island nation in five decades, caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which produced an estimated five billion dollars in losses.

"It is practically impossible to escape the impact, although Cuba is relatively protected, and Latin America is also in a better position than it was a few years ago," Esteban Morales, a researcher at the University of Havana’s Centre for the Study of the Hemisphere and the United States (CEHSEU), told IPS.

"A marked slowdown in the growth of Cuba's gross domestic product (GDP) is likely," economist Pavel Vidal wrote in an article for the Economics Press Service, a publication of the IPS office in Havana.

In January, the Centre for the Study of the Cuban Economy (CEEC) forecast GDP growth of 5.1 percent for 2008, based on the expansion of investment and growth in sectors like tourism and professional services. This figure, however, already reflected a slowdown that began to be seen in 2007.

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