CEPAL certifies the seriousness of the Cuban economy

The Statistical Yearbook of Latin America and the Caribbean by CEPAL for the year 2025 has just been published, providing basic macroeconomic data on the Cuban economy that allows for an objective assessment of its current situation, especially in comparison to other countries in the region.

Every time CEPAL publishes an economic report, it completely exposes the Cuban economy, making its main results visible to all and addressing the transparency issues that characterize the official information from the communist regime.

This CEPAL report comes at a particularly critical time when the extreme severity of the Cuban economy, on the brink of implosion, is being discussed. However, by considering the information in this Yearbook, it will be clear that this crisis scenario is not a recent development, but rather one that has been long in the making. Now, let's see what CEPAL has to say.

First, the magnitude of the GDP at current market prices assigns Cuba a total of $12,099.9 million in the reference year. This means that Cuba only accounts for 0.2% of the total estimated figure at the regional level by CEPAL, which is $6,790,503 million for Latin America and the Caribbean. When considering GDP per capita, the figure for Cuba stands at $1,082.8, while for the region as a whole, this indicator rises to $10,212.2. The gap between these two indicators is staggering, reaching about 90%. This indicates that the Cuban economy is already in a state of extreme poverty by 2025.

Secondly, it is also possible to obtain information regarding GDP at constant market prices (referring to the 2018 fiscal year), which helps to correct the distorting effects caused by inflation, which in the case of the Cuban economy have been particularly pronounced since the implementation of the Tarea Ordenamiento in 2021.

Well, the GDP measured in these terms reaches 88,906.6 million dollars in the Island's economy, according to CEPAL estimates, raising the percentage of the total regional GDP to 1.4%. When using per capita indicators, the Cuban economy records 7,956.1 constant dollars, while in Latin America and the Caribbean it reaches 9,032.9 dollars. In this case, the gap is significantly reduced, but the Cuban economy remains 12% below the regional average, which again indicates its level of poverty.

Based on current per capita GDP data, Cuba's economy ranks last among all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, far behind the Dominican Republic's $10,867 or Costa Rica's $18,178, both of which have similar sizes but different economic models and varying levels of economic success. Even Haiti, which records a per capita income of $2,136, ranks ahead of Cuba, which, as noted, sits at the bottom of the classification. When adjusted for inflation, the Cuban economy moves up to mid-tier positions and recovers ground in the region, achieving some surprising results by ranking ahead of countries like Colombia or Paraguay.

Thirdly, if we consider the GDP growth rate recorded in 2024 and 2025, the Cuban economy has experienced two consecutive years of decline, accumulating a decrease of 2.6% according to data prepared by CEPAL and 2.3% based on figures officially recognized by the regime. In both cases, the economy has been trending downwards, which tends to exacerbate the already low levels of production and per capita income mentioned earlier. The data concerning the Cuban economy is even more pressing when compared to the overall growth in the region, which, in the two cited years, has been at 4.7%, highlighting the structural weaknesses of the Cuban economy.

The scant data, as information regarding the island's economy is limited in these reports, confirms that Cuba is immersed in a severe crisis that has not emerged recently, but rather has been ongoing, at least for the last two years. The current scenario appears more as the result of a prolonged process than as a consequence of a measure adopted last January against Venezuela. The data confirms that there have been two consecutive years of decline in economic indicators, with authorities unable to reverse the situation. The severity of the Cuban economy is critical and requires responsibility and competence immediately.