Castro optmistic about market reforms

Cuban president Raul Castro said a two-year experiment with market reforms is working and has the wind at its back, but added much work remains to breathe life into the sputtering economy.

In a speech devoid of any new policy announcements, the military khaki-clad leader sounded a generally positive tone in discussing the Marxist country’s progress, although he conceded that the island faces a “colossal psychological barrier” in shedding old habits and “concepts of the past”.