[NYTr] Cuba: More Expensive Fuel, More Expensive Everything Else

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


More Expensive Fuels, More Expensive Everything Else

Havana, Dec 10 (acn) Cuba will spend US $250 million more than in 2006 
for importing foodstuffs, whose prices have gone up considerably for a 
number of reasons, including the increase in fuels.

The price of oil, the fuel most commonly used on the planet, now 
threatens to hit US$ 100 per barrel and beyond, with serious 
consequences for the world, particularly developing countries, 
including of course Cuba, which bears the nearly half-century US 
blockade as an aggravating factor.

Today the purchase of a bus requires many more tons of sugarcane or 
some other national product than five, ten or fifteen years ago. To 
maintain its operating costs is still more expensive since the price of 
fuel and parts has multiplied.

Cuba has invested more than US $1.3 billion in new electricity 
generation capacities, and another $250 million in the improvement of 
distribution networks, reads an article published by Granma newspaper.

The country also continues to implement the Energy Revolution, an idea 
of President Fidel Castro, which includes more efficient forms of 
production, distribution and energy consumption.

The Cienfuegos oil refinery will soon begin operations; meanwhile, the 
oil exploration efforts of CUBAPETROLEO and its foreign partner open 
new perspectives for exploration and extraction of oil in the country. 
Yet  it is more important than ever to convert public awareness on the 
need for savings to meet people's basic needs and development in all 
areas, concludes the article.