CUBA TO STIMULATE ECONOMY DESPITE IMPORT CUTS
Cuba will continue to develop its economy
despite the need to cut imports from hard currency nations by
half this year, President Fidel Castro said.
    The Cuban economy is going through a difficult period due
mainly to two years of drought, low sugar prices, a fall in the
price of petroleum and the fall in the value of the dollar,
Castro said in a published weekend speech delivered to a young
communists union congress.
    Castro said  cuba will continue to prospect for oil, build
thermo-electric generating stations, a large petroleum refinery
and a nuclear power plant in 1987.
    He said work would also continue this year in developing
the chemical and mining industries. Among the main projects in
mining are two nickel processing plants built with Soviet and
Comecon aid .
    REUTER
