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My Profile Top News Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day. Subscribe You are here: Home > News > International > Article Home Business & Finance News U.S. Politics International Technology Entertainment Sports Lifestyle Oddly Enough Health Science Special Coverage Video Pictures Your View The Great Debate Blogs Weather Reader Feedback Do More With Reuters RSS Widgets Mobile Podcasts Newsletters Your View Make Reuters My Homepage Partner Services CareerBuilder Affiliate Network Professional Products Support (Customer Zone) Reuters Media Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Cubans face hardship under new austerity measures Mon Jun 1, 2009 3:34pm EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page [-] Text [+] By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans faced power blackouts, longer waits for buses, uncomfortable working conditions and skimpier lunches on Monday as the government introduced austerity measures to cope with a growing economic squeeze. The measures followed two weeks of warnings by the Communist-run government that it could not meet rising electricity demand due to a cash crunch that has forced it to restructure debt and put off payments to foreign businesses. Cuba, like other Caribbean countries, has been hit hard by the global financial crisis, which has slashed revenues from key exports, dried up credit and reduced foreign investment. It is also recovering from three hurricanes that struck last year, causing an estimated $10 billion in damages. All provincial governments and most state-run offices and factories, which encompasses 90 percent of Cuba's economic activity, were ordered to reduce energy consumption by a minimum of 12 percent or face mandatory electricity cuts. The state-monopolized retail sector and many government offices were ordered to keep air conditioners turned off until 1:30 p.m., turn off some lights and shut off freezers for at least two hours a day, local media reported over the weekend. Long lines formed at bus stops in Havana as the number of bus runs were cut, and trains between the capital and provinces were reduced by a minimum of 50 percent, although more passenger cars were added to each trip. Food allocations for lunches and snacks at most state workplaces were cut by 50 percent, except for workers in heavy industries like mining and construction, food industry sources said. MEAT ORDERS CUT The austerity measures reminded Cubans of the hardships that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of $5 billion in annual subsidies Moscow provided. "Everyone is worried and talking about how bad it might get, and if the blackouts are back," a Havana resident who works for the power sector said. Cubans typically get free state-provided meals when accompanying hospitalized relatives, but the new rules put a stop to that, except for people traveling from out of town, hospital sources in Havana said. A U.S. businessman who sells meat products to the Cuban government under an exemption to a U.S. trade embargo, told Reuters, "They have cut their orders by more than 50 percent for the rest of the year." Cuba imports two-thirds of the fuel it consumes from ally and hydrocarbons producer Venezuela, which has seen its own oil revenues plummet 50 percent this year. Economy and Planning Minister Marino Murillo recently said Cuba's growth forecast for 2009 was reduced from 6 percent to below 2.5 percent. Continued... View article on single page Share: Del.icio.us Digg Mixx Yahoo! Facebook LinkedIn Next Article: Tiananmen mothers won't let memory of their dead fade Afghanistan and Pakistan Fighting the Taliban A growing insurgency in Afghanistan is also spreading deep into Pakistan, making both countries crucial to U.S. war efforts in the region. 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