Business & Economy

A shipment of 66,000 pounds of goods from Miami arrived in Havana on Friday on board the Ana Cecilia, the boat owned by the International Port Corp (CPI) for sending freight to Cuba.

Bad economic news on Monday for the Cuban government as the second deep water oil well drilled in the gulf of Mexico has come up virtually dry and will not be of commercial use.

Tropical Storm Ernesto was born on Thursday afternoon under 300 miles east of St. Lucia in the southeastern Caribbean Islands. The weather system packs 50 mph winds and is moving swiftly west at 21 mph.

Cuba added eight proposals to the bag of economic projects being reviewed by the Bank of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), said officials from the island’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment, Jose Chaple.

Aimed at strengthening trade between El Salvador and Cuba, the “Partial Scope Agreement” went into effect on Wednesday, announced El Salvador’s Ministry of the Economy. 71 percent of Salvadoran products can now be imported into Cuba without paying duties.

The International Court of Arbitration in Paris accepted the arguments of Chilean businessperson Max Marambio, who is suing the Cuban government for assets of the Rio Zaza company, reported La Tercera newspaper.

The bi-annual meeting of Cuba’s National Assembly of Popular Power (parliament) concluded on Sunday without the body taking up the issue of immigration reform, despite Cuban President Raul Castro having announced such an action on two separate occasions.

The vice president of the Cuba’s Council of Ministers, Marino Murillo, advocated before parliament on Monday the creation of new non-agricultural cooperatives as part of the process of “updating” the country’s economic system.

Cuba’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 2.1 percent in the first half of 2012, reported Adel Yzquiero, the Minister of Economy and Planning, when speaking before parliament at the Havana Convention Center on Monday.