Economist questions the new openness to foreign investment: "It does not address Cuba's structural risks."

The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal harshly criticized the new measures of the Cuban regime to leverage foreign direct investment, stating that they do not address the country's structural problems.

Monreal considered that the government proposal, announced by Vice Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga during the Havana International Fair (FIHAV 2025), to promote economic growth "revives an old yearning for the export-based growth model," but does not address the structural problems that hinder the Cuban economy.

"The proposal essentially consists of leveraging foreign direct investment to revive the long-standing desire for an export-driven growth model," he wrote on the social network Facebook.

However, she explains, these “do not clarify two things. The first is the feasibility of whether the allure of the new measures can counteract structural risks,” she emphasizes.

Among these risks, the expert mentions low growth, persistent inflation, multiple exchange and monetary rates, unstable dollarization, an unpredictable institutional framework, low international reserves, and energy instability.

"The measures announced to sweeten the current operational framework for foreign investment do not address structural risks for investors," he warned.

Monreal also questioned the social impact that the model the regime is trying to promote could have, pointing out that an export-driven growth scheme is usually accompanied by wage compression, real devaluation, consumption taxes, and concentration of profits in export sectors, which would exacerbate the poverty of Cuban households.

"It is not clear how the 'suppression of domestic consumption' that usually accompanies the export-driven growth model would not worsen the impoverishment of Cuban households," pointed out the economist.

His statements come a day after Miguel Díaz-Canel's government announced the partial legalization of foreign currency operations for foreign companies, in an attempt to attract foreign capital in light of the severe economic crisis the country is experiencing.

As reported by CiberCuba in a previous note, the Cuban government will allow foreign investors to manage foreign currency freely, open accounts abroad, and hire staff with greater autonomy, in a process that MINCEX itself described as a “partial dollarization” of the economy.

However, for Monreal, this opening does not eliminate the factors that drive away investment, but rather redefines them without changing the centralized and state-dependent model, which continues to control the main decisions and financial flows.