This issue of Cuba Economic Review opens with Quick Takes: U.S. Census Bureau corrections cut the cumulative volume of diesel exported to Cuba; renewables now generate 21.4% of Cuba’s electricity, but of a total output that has shrunk since 2019; the Castellanos lead and zinc mine shuts down until January 2027; Cuba overhauls its oil and gas framework; new private MIPYMEs dwindle to 26 in the first half of the year, while the number of state enterprises has kept growing since 2020; and transportation lost passengers and cargo in 2025. By the Numbers shows industrial output fell in 2025 to the lowest level in a series dating to 1989, 24% below 1993, the worst year of the Special Period. Only tobacco, beverages, and wood products are holding up, all branches that use little energy. In Deep follows the money: investment nearly doubled as a share of GDP between 2014 and 2025 while real GDP fell, and for every peso that went to the power system, 3.5 went to hotels and real estate. We close with Recommended Readings, featuring an essay by Will Freeman in Foreign Affairs which argues that Cuba’s biggest risk is what erodes while the government survives.
