Cuba, in the grip of a serious economic crisis, is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year, officials with state-run companies said on Friday.

Officials said they were lowering the prices of 24 basic goods to help Cubans get through the difficulties provoked in part by the global financial crisis and three destructive hurricanes that struck the island last year.

"The corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there will be an important importation of toilet paper," an official with state conglomerate¹ Cimex said on state-run Radio Rebelde.

Cuba both imports toilet paper and produces its own, but does not currently have enough raw materials to make it, he said.

One of the measures taken to address the cash crunch² is a 20 percent cut in imports, which in recent days has become evident in the reduction of goods in state-run stores.

Despite the shortages, prices will be cut between 5 percent and 27 percent for some food, drugs and personal hygiene³ products, officials said.

Ana Maria Ortega, deputy director for retail⁴ conglomerate TRD Caribe, said there will be no shortage of basic goods.

"The conditions are in place to maintain the supply of essential products," she said on the same radio program.

President Raul Castro told the National Assembly last week that the government had cut its spending budget for the second time this year and has been renegotiating its debt and payments with foreign providers.

Cuba said that last year's hurricanes did $10 billion worth of damage that forced the government to spend heavily on imports of food and reconstruction⁵ products.

Castro has taken various steps to boost output, including putting more state-owned land in private hands and pushing for salaries to be based on productivity.

古巴国企官员于上周五称，该国深陷严重经济危机，厕纸告急，而且这种状况有可能持续到年底。

古巴官方表示，将降低24种基本商品的价格，来帮助古巴人民度过经济困境。全球金融危机和去年三次破坏性飓风的袭击，是诱发岛国古巴此次经济困境的部分原因。

古巴大型国企Cimex的一位官员在国有媒体“起义军电台”节目上说：“公司已经采取各种措施，以确保在年底前能进口大量卫生纸。

他表示，古巴不仅进口卫生纸，还自己生产。但由于原料缺乏，目前已无法生产卫生纸。

为应对经济压力，政府采取的措施之一是将商品进口量削减20%，这一措施的效果近日已非常明显，因为国营商店中的货品已经减少了。

政府表示，尽管货源紧缺，但还会将某些食品、药品和个人卫生用品的价格降低5%至27%。

古巴“TRD加勒比”零售集团副总裁安娜•玛丽亚•奥尔特加表示，基本生活物资不会出现短缺。

她在同一档电台节目中说：“从目前的情况来看，必需物品的供应能够得到保证。”

古巴主席劳尔•卡斯特罗上周对全国人民政权代表大会称，政府今年已经两次削减支出预算，也已经开始与外国供货方洽谈债务与付款问题。

古巴政府表示，去年的飓风造成了100亿美元损失，迫使政府在食品进口和重建项目方面花销很大。

古巴主席卡斯特罗已经采取了多种措施来提高生产效率，包括将更多的国有土地转变为私有，并鼓励采取绩效工资制。

vocabulary:

important: 大量的