In that sense, the government has "delayed some of the planned adjustment" - though, it must be said, only because the worsened state of the economy means the same amount of spending cuts and tax rises will not do as much to help the public finances in this parliament than they previously hoped.

BBC: IMF: 'Great policies - shame about the economy'

Proponents of the centrally planned pump-priming, deficit-spending welfare state see the gold standard as the enemy of a healthy economy.

FORBES: Give The Gold Standard Its Due

An attritional stream of propaganda pours forth from his official media, and he is busily moving the country back to a centrally planned economy, depriving state agencies and companies of most of the autonomy they had gained in the market-oriented reforms of the 1990s.

ECONOMIST: Fidel Castro's permanent revolution marches on