Cuba adopts sweeping economic reforms amid US criticism

The Cuban parliament unanimously approved a broad package of 176 economic measures, marking what officials call the deepest reform initiative in the island’s 70‑year socialist history. The reforms aim to privatise state enterprises, allow larger private firms, attract foreign investment, open the foreign‑exchange market and liberalise sectors such as agriculture, tourism, banking and finance.

President Miguel Diaz‑Canel told the Communist Party’s Central Committee that the economy “needs urgent and necessary changes” to address the deep crisis worsened by a U.S. oil embargo that has caused power cuts and shortages of food, fuel and medicines. He called for “deep, flexible and applicable short‑term economic change” and cited examples from China and Vietnam.

The U.S. State Department dismissed the Cuban measures as a “surface smoke screen,” saying they are “moderate, long‑awaited and in reality merely a superficial veil of the Cuban regime.” Washington’s spokesperson urged Cuba to implement “much more substantial economic and political reforms” to become attractive to investors and to improve living standards for its people.