However, regardless of the embargo, Cuba succeeded in maintaining its economy with $3 billion annual aid from the Soviet Union. But when the USSR collapsed in 1991, the financial assistance to Cuba were stopped, which resulted in a decline by 35 to 50% in the Cuban economy between 1989 to1993. President Clinton in 1995 lifted some travel restrictions and allowed a Western Union office to open in Havana, and in 2001 after Michelle Hurricane, the United States allowed U.S. companies to sell food to Cuba for humanitarian reasons.
