<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#0000CC"> <BR> <BR> <CENTER> <TABLE BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" WIDTH="80%" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="2" BORDER="0"> <TR> <TD> <TABLE BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" WIDTH="100%" CELLSPACING="2" CELLPADDING="0" BORDER="0"> <TR> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="TOP"> <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Sans Serif" SIZE="+2" COLOR="#FF0000"><B> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="TOP"> <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Sans Serif" SIZE="+2" COLOR="#FF0000">Economy <TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="TOP"> <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Sans Serif" SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF0000">Main </B></FONT> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> <TABLE BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" WIDTH="100%" CELLSPACING="4" CELLPADDING="20" BORDER="0"> <TR> <TD BGCOLOR="#FF0000" ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP"> <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Sans Serif" SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFFF"><b> <!--links go here! --> Visit </b><P></FONT> <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Sans Serif" SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF"> <A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/emo2/cuba/History">History</A> <P> <A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/emo2/cuba/Havana">Havana</A> <P> <A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/emo2/cuba/Culture">Culture</A> <P> <A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/emo2/cuba/Economy">Economy</A> <P> <A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/emo2/cuba">HOME</A> <P> </FONT> </TD> <TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP"> <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Sans Serif" SIZE="4"><b> </b></FONT> <P> <FONT FACE="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Sans Serif" SIZE="2"> </form> <b> <!-- talk amongst yourselves. topic: you get to choose it --> Economy </b> <P> Over four decades since the triumph of the Revolution of 1959, the Cuban economy remains based on agriculture. Sugar remains the mainstay of the economy, the largest source for employment, and the main generator of the net export revenues. The tourism industry grew rapidly in the 1990s. The gross revenue generated by tourism had surpassed that earned by sugar. Net revenues generated by tourism are only about one-third of gross revenue, however, reflecting the high import content of activities of this industry. <P> Cuba remains a centrally planned economy and the government controls the bulk of the productive resources of the nation. By the 1980s, however, some economic activities for private gain existed. <P> Buffered by economic assistance from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, the Cuban economy showed positive economic growth in the 1970s and 80s. In the first half of the 1980s, socialist Cuba recorded its strongest economic performance. In the latter half of that year, economic growth slowed down. During this period, Cuba was engaged in the "rectification process of errors and negative tendencies" and began to face a tightening of its economic relations with the Soviet Union under president Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of economic and governmental reform, known as perestroika. <P> The events that triggered Cuba's economic crisis are undoubtedly related to the shift in trade and relations with the former socialist countries. The economies began to shift from central planning to market economies. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba's economic support for three decades vanished overnight.<br><br>The currencies currently accepted in Cuba are the U.S. dollar, the Cuban Convertible Peso, the Euro, and the Cuban Peso. The Cuban Convertible Peso (left)<IMG SRC="http://www.webhavana.com/images/currency/50front.JPG" WIDTH="245" HEIGHT="141" ALIGN="left">is an attempt by the Cuban financial authorities to take out all U.S. dollars currently in circulation and offer a currency that is equal to the dollar. They will keep the dollar in the banks and will also allow tourists and others with access to the dollar to pay in a distinctive way from Cubans with ordinary pesos. This is idealistic since the government does not have the capacity to produce enough Convertible Pesos to change all dollars in circulation. However, they reached this goal with coins. At this moment, you cannot use U.S. coins in Cuba. You must use the coins from the Convertible Peso type. Be careful since counterfeiters frequent the streets waiting for unsuspecting tourists who are not familiar with the Convertible Peso. <br>The difference between the Convertible Peso and the peso is that the Convertible Pesos have monuments and historic sites on them; pesos have historic figures, such as Fidel Castro on them.<br><IMG SRC="http://www.webhavana.com/images/currency/cubanos/5front.JPG" WIDTH="245" HEIGHT="141" ALIGN="right">The peso (right) is used infrequently since you may only need pesos for a limited number of services or products such as transportation, at the market, or perhaps some pizza on the street. <P> </FONT> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> </CENTER> </BODY> </HTML>