Cuba plans massive shift to "non-state" sector

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba will move nearly 50 percent of the state's economic activity to the "non-state" sector, a senior Communist party official said at the weekend, the latest signal the island is headed toward a mixed economy.

Argentina, Brazil back Cuba's inclusion in future summits

BRASILIA, Brazil, March 15 (UPI) -- Cuba will be barred from next month's Summit of the Americas at U.S. insistence but Havana's friends Argentina and Brazil are vowing with new resolve to have Havana leaders present at subsequent conferences.

Cuba wraps up dramatic year of economic change

HAVANA (AP) — A year at the vanguard of Cuba's economic revival has not brought Julio Cesar Hidalgo riches. The fledgling pizzeria owner has had his good months, but the restaurant he opened with his girlfriend often runs at a loss. At times, they can't afford to buy basic ingredients.

Cuban banks begin offering loans to private businesses

Banks in Cuba have begun offering loans to individual citizens, in the latest free-market reform in the communist-run island.

Urban marketplaces, long common in Latin America, flourishing in Cuba amid economic changes

HAVANA — Marketplaces full of vendors hawking everything from food to religious items may be common sights across Latin America, but they’re springing up for the first time in the Cuban capital as the island’s Communist government opens its tightly controlled economy to some private-sector activity.

Nearly 140 official points of sale in abandoned structures, parking lots and crumbling old buildings have been established in recent months and are accommodating about 2,600 independent vendors, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported Friday. The number of markets “should grow steadily,” Luis Carlos Gongora, vice president of Havana’s Provincial Administration Council, told the newspaper.

Cuba, China strengthen economic ties

Havana – Cuba and China signed in Havana 10 economic accords and memorandums of agreement in the areas of finance, oil, communications, information technology and other technical fields, in a move to strengthen bilateral relations.

The agreements were signed in the presence of Cuban head of state Raul Castro and visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping.