MIAMI, United States. — The Minister of Economy and Planning of the Cuban regime, Alejandro Gil Fernández, pointed out this Tuesday that the island’s authorities still can’t contain inflationone of the main problems facing the economy of the Caribbean country.
Speaking at the most recent meeting of the Council of Ministers, the official highlighted the rise in various economic indicators. However, he admitted that what was achieved in the first months of the year is insufficient to contain the rise in the prices of goods and services.
Gil Fernández indicated that although retail merchandise circulation experienced growth of 9% at the end of January, this “is not enough to start a process of containing inflation, which is still very high.”
The leader qualified, however, that there was a slight growth in exports, especially products such as nickel, honey, charcoal and tobacco, at levels that are in line with the provisions of the Annual Plan of the Economy.
As published by the digital portal cubadebatethe minister also referred to the discreet recovery of tourism compared to last year, despite the fact that the figures are below what was projected.
At the same meeting, Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and general secretary of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) also spoke of the persistence of high prices and the need to produce food.
Figures shared by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) corresponding to January 2023 show an increase in inflation of 2.32% compared to December of last year.
The Cuban economy also exhibits an alarming interannual rate of variation, a parameter that measures the behavior of inflation between January 2022 and 2023, and whose record in January was 42.08%, higher than the 39% recorded in December.
