Cuba

Cuba has a state-controlled, centrally planned economy — one of the last in the world — that has struggled for decades under a US trade embargo and the loss of Soviet support, with chronic shortages of food, fuel, and basics.

Limited market reforms and a growing private sector have emerged, but the economy remains dominated by the state and battered by sanctions, the decline of ally Venezuela, and a collapse in tourism, driving mass emigration.

Key Sectors

The economy rests on services exported abroad (notably medical personnel), tourism, remittances from Cubans overseas, nickel mining, and agriculture (sugar and tobacco for its famed cigars), much of it state-run.