Containers are seen at the Mariel port in Artemisa province, Cuba January 5, 2016. Cuba’s economy shrank 0.9 percent this year in tandem with the crisis in its key trading partner Venezuela, President Raul Castro told the National Assembly on Tuesday in a closed-door speech, predicting a slightly brighter outlook for 2017. The figure suggests the economy contracted sharply in the second half after the cash-strapped government drastically cut imports, investment and fuel in response to lower exports and a drop in cheap oil deliveries from Venezuela. It had reported 1 percent growth for the first half. “Restrictions in cash and in the provision of fuel worsened in the second half,” Castro said, according to excerpts published by official media outlet Cubadebate. “Financial tensions and challenges that might intensify again in certain circumstances will persist, but we hope that gross domestic product will grow moderately, by around 2 percent […]