La Isla Low on the Nessecities...

...So bring your own toilet paper if you're going to be in Cuba

By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
Theblackurbantimes.com

An increase spending for imports, reduced export income, the three hurricanes that hit the Island last year and the overall global financial crunch have all depleted Cuba 's financial reserves. The communist-led government has had to take extraordinary measures to keep the economy afloat in order to provide their natives with the basic necessities.

Toilet paper is running very low and officials may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year. "The corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there will be an important importation of toilet paper," an official with state conglomerate Cimex said on state-run Radio Rebelde. The shipment will enable the state-run company "to supply this demand that today is presenting problems," he said.

Cuba both imports toilet paper and produces its own, but does not currently have enough raw materials to make it, he said.
Cuba imports about 60 percent of its food.Despite the shortages, prices will be cut between 5 percent and 27 percent for some food, drugs and personal hygiene products, officials said.
A visit to a store in Havana's Vedado neighborhood on Friday found that prices had dropped for mayonnaise, barbecue sauce and canned squid. One customer, who gave his name only as Pedro, complained that "it doesn't look like prices have been lowered for the fundamental products" such as cooking oil.

Cubans receive a subsidized food ration from the government each month that they say meets their needs for about two weeks. Cuba has long blamed the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the island for many of its economic problems. It also said that last year's hurricanes did $10 billion worth of damage that forced the government to spend heavily on imports of food and reconstruction products.
Castro, who replaced his ailing older brother Fidel Castro as president last year, also has complained that Cuba's productivity is too low. He has taken various steps to boost output, including putting more state-owned land in private hands and pushing for salaries to be based on productivity.