Havana - Cuba is advancing, is the phrase with which Fernando Fulgueiras, a Cuban public employee, comments on the salary increase announced on Thursday by the government.

It was a decision by the Council of Ministers that includes other measures to boost the economy, as part of 'a strategy based on the maximum use of the country's internal capacities and human potential,' according an official reports stresses.

Fulgueiras is one of the more than 2,750,000 citizens who will benefit from the salary increase in the State-budgeted sector, which also includes hundreds of thousands of pensioners.

The news was a surprise, as it occurs at a especially hard time for the Cuban economy, submitted to the tightening of the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States for almost six decades.

For the new measures, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said they took into consideration people's criteria and also that of experts, including academics on economic sciences.

The President pointed out that the Council of Ministers was enriched by visits to the provinces and proposals made at congresses such as that of the Cuban Confederation of Workers, which gathers the country's trade unions.

It is not the final salary increase that we are going to, but it is quite significant for the conditions we are living in, Diaz-Canel stressed.

The Cuban President indicated that monitoring mechanisms will be established to track prices and how consumption behaves. This gives us time to rectify any element and prevent inflation,' he added.