Rodríguez also pointed out that oil output was up by 2.9% in 2003 and electricity generation up by 2.1%. He claimed that now 83.4% of the country's energy was produced domestically. He was also bullish about the agricultural sector, though he admitted that the sector was undergoing a profound restructuring. The other problem sector of the economy is the nickel industry: output was down by 4.7%. Nickel export revenues, however, were up, thanks to the strength of nickel prices.
Rodríguez claimed that imports were up by 13.4% and exports were up by 14%. He claimed that the fiscal deficit was 3.8% of GDP, much the same as in 2002. The star sector in the economy, he said, was the tourism industry: the number of visitors was up by 12.7%, at 1.9m, while the industry's revenues were up by 16%.
The country now has 41,000 hotel rooms. The Hotel Nacional, one of the main hotels in Havana, said that its occupation rate was 76% in 2003. Once again, the government is setting a target of attracting 2m tourists to the island. The country has the lowest return-rate of any destination in the Caribbean, even though people who go there say that they enjoyed themselves.
The minister said that the government's policy on insisting that all Cuban companies convert their hard currency earnings into convertible pesos had improved the government's fiscal position. The measure came into effect in July 2003.
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