AP Wire
Cuba's pocket-size government ration book has been circulating for more than six decades. It once offered a bounty of products that have dwindled as the island's economic crises deepen. A growing number of Cubans depend on state grocery stores in the socialist country of nearly 10 million people. But the shelves remain largely empty in the state stores that have been diminished by a lack of government resources. Cuba imports up to 80% of its food and prices have soared for basic goods that increasingly are sold in U.S. dollars. Ration books are shrinking quickly as Cubans struggle to subsist on meager salaries and pensions.