The recent publication of the report "Selected Indicators of the Business and Budget System," corresponding to April 2025, starkly reveals the structural deterioration of the Cuban economy under the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Despite the triumphant rhetoric, official data shows that the country is heading towards an economic collapse while millions of Cubans survive on salaries that barely cover the essentials.
The report, prepared by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), indicates that the average monthly salary in the state and budgeted sector was 6,506.5 Cuban pesos (CUP), which, at the informal exchange rate — today at 380 CUP per dollar — amounts to just 17 dollars per month.
In a country where a carton of 30 eggs in the black market costs 3,600 CUP, this income is barely enough to cover even a week's worth of food needs for a Cuban family.
Even the business sector, supposedly the most dynamic, fails to turn around the situation. Its average salary was 7,120.3 CUP, while the budgeted sector, which includes health, education, and culture, barely reaches 5,850.4 CUP.
These figures highlight a significant disparity in income access based on economic activity. For instance, workers in the electricity, gas, and water sector earn salaries exceeding 12,000 CUP, while those employed in commerce, culture, or community services earn between 4,400 and 5,100 CUP.
In addition, the report reveals alarming territorial disparities: Havana records the highest average salary (7,442.2 CUP), while provinces like Santiago de Cuba (5,684.1 CUP) and Guantánamo (5,562 CUP) remain well below the national average.
Despite these disparities, the regime continues to allocate the majority of the investment to business sectors, instead of strengthening essential services. Of the more than 35 billion pesos invested in the first quarter of the year, over 90% went to state-owned enterprises, leaving behind the budgeted sector that serves the population in health, education, and social security.
Meanwhile, corporate profitability is declining: pre-tax earnings fell by 13.8%, and profitability per peso of net sales dropped from 0.19 to 0.17, reflecting an unproductive and highly subsidized model.
All of this occurs in a context where the number of state workers has decreased by 5.8% in one year, and productivity has barely increased by 2.3%, which reinforces the perception that the state apparatus consumes more resources than it generates.
This data, rather than being an external accusation, comes from the state institutions themselves, revealing the severity of the economic deterioration experienced on the island. The average salary, which authorities claimed would be sufficient following the so-called "Ordering Task," has turned into a symbolic figure that barely covers the minimum needed to survive in the informal market.
Miguel Díaz-Canel's policies have propelled the country into an unprecedented income crisis. The concentration of economic power in the hands of the State, the disregard for genuine structural reforms, and the marginalization of the real private sector have created a sterile environment, incapable of generating wealth, and even less, of redistributing it.
The Cuban population faces this reality with growing indignation, expressed on social media, daily testimonies, and a historic migratory exodus in recent years. Meanwhile, the government continues its rhetoric of resistance, ignoring the data revealed by its own institutions: that living on 6,000 pesos is impossible, that the model does not work, and that the country continues to become poorer.
The April report is not just a technical document. It is evidence that the economic disaster is not an external or temporary consequence, but rather the direct result of failed decisions, an ineffective model, and a government that refuses to amend its course.
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