Cuba Expects 10 Percent Growth in '07

Cuba's economy should grow by 10 percent in 2007, the third straight year of double-digit expansion, despite slips in the tourism sector, according to Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez.

Speaking at a meeting of economists, Rodriguez said gross domestic product on the communist-run island would rise by 10 percent this year, reiterating a prediction he made in February.

The event Monday was closed to international media, but Rodriguez's comments were reported Tuesday by the official National Information Agency.

The report provided few details about what is fueling growth, citing only general increases in industrial and agricultural production. Cuba includes state spending on social and health care programs when calculating its growth rates, a methodology that makes its figures difficult to compare with those of other countries.

Cuba has transformed its economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union, once its chief supporter and trade partner, at the start of the 1990s.

Aided by high prices for the copper, nickel and cobalt its mines produce, the island's government reported economic growth of 12.5 percent in 2006 and 11 percent in 2005.

Tourism is the chief source of revenue, but the number of overseas visitors declined through June of this year as compared to 2006 _ a year that saw a slight slip from the 2.2 million visitors in 2005.

Venezuela provides nearly 100,000 daily barrels of oil to the island in exchange for Cuban social services, but Rodriguez said this country still feels the pinch of rising oil prices on world markets.

"We will have to confront complex situations like ever higher prices for oil, which require a strict policy to save fuel," Rodriguez was quoted as saying. He also promised increased state spending on the energy sector.