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Weekly Report - 18 September 2008 (ISSN 1741-7422)

CUBA: Counting the cost of Gustav and Ike

Little did President Raúl Castro know when he warned Cubans not to expect to “receive only good news" in his showpiece speech on 26 July that his words would be so apposite so quickly. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which ravaged Cuba in the space of two weeks, claimed seven lives, razed an estimated 63,000 houses to the ground and seriously damaged a further 444,000, according to a preliminary report released by the government. The figures show that not only will the economy suffer a body blow but Castro's grand plan for increasing the efficiency of the agricultural sector will struggle to get off the canvas.

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