Editing Economy of Cuba (section)

===Private businesses===
Owners of small private restaurants (''[[paladar]]es'') originally could seat no more than 12 people<ref name="O'Rourke2007">{{cite book|author=P. J. O'Rourke|title=Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=YzTauHNa4FIC}}|date=1 December 2007|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated|isbn=978-1-55584-710-4}}</ref> and can only employ family members. Set monthly fees must be paid regardless of income earned, and frequent inspections yield stiff fines when any of the many self-employment regulations are violated.

As of 2012, more than 150,000 farmers had signed up to lease land from the government for bonus crops. Before, homeowners were only allowed to swap; once buying and selling were allowed, prices rose.<ref name=BBC2012SimonReeve/>

In cities, "[[urban agriculture]]" farms small parcels. Growing [[organopónicos]] (organic gardens) in the private sector has been attractive to city-dwelling small producers who sell their products where they produce them, avoiding taxes and enjoying a measure of government help from the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) in the form of seed houses and advisers.

In February 2021, the government said that it would allow the private sector to operate in most sectors of the economy, with only 124 activities remaining in the public sector,<ref name=":2" /> such as national security, health, and educational services.<ref name=":3" /> In August 2021, the Cuban government started allowing citizens to create small and medium-sized private companies, which are allowed to employ up to 100 people. As of 2023, 8,000 companies have been registered in Cuba.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Augustin |first=Ed |title=As Cuba's private sector roars back, choices and inequality rise |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/7/19/as-cubas-private-sector-roars-back-choices-and-inequality-rise |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 2021, Cuba's "economic freedom" score from the free-market oriented [[The Heritage Foundation|Heritage Foundation]] was 28.1, ranking Cuba's economy 176th (among the "least free") on such measures as "trade freedom, fiscal freedom, monetary freedom, freedom, and business freedom". Cuba ranked 31st among the 32 South and Central America countries, with the Heritage Foundation rating Venezuela as a "client state" of Cuba's and one of the least free.<ref name="2021 Index of Economic Freedom">{{cite web|title=Cuba 2021|work=[[Index of Economic Freedom]]|url=http://www.heritage.org/index/country/cuba|publisher=[[The Heritage Foundation]]|access-date=13 July 2021|archive-date=13 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713094613/https://www.heritage.org/index/country/cuba|url-status=unfit}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=August 2023}}