ANY statistics from a country ruled by a dictator are subject to be pencil whipped - into what the dictator wants to see. So any statistics from Cuba showing "improved living conditions", "top flight health care", etc... are in fact what the Castro brothers wanted them to be.
In The Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn wrote that each level of Communist bureaucrat lied about the grain harvests. When the local apparatchik realized his harvest numbers were horribly sub-plan he lied and certified them to be on target, then the next level did the same, and then the next level did the same, and so on and so on. They did this because they knew if they told the truth they would be fired, imprisoned, and maybe killed. So Stalin, along with the entire country, was taken by surprise. The coverup of the gross grain shortage exacerbated the horrible famine that ensued.
Data issued by dictatorial governments only has value if the paper it is printed on is then recycled.
