Interannual inflation in the formal market in Cuba stood at 15.20% in September, a stagnation compared to August (15.21%) that confirms the interruption of the downward trend that began a year and a half ago, according to data published this Tuesday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
The consumer price index (CPI), however, continues to be well below that recorded in September 2024, when it was 29.05%. The monthly variation compared to the previous month was 0.76% and the accumulated variation was 10.88%.
By category, the year-on-year increase in Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (107.63%) stood out, followed by Restaurants and Hotels (23.24%), Education (17.54%), Housing Services (13.93%), Furniture and household items (13.47%), and Miscellaneous goods and services (13.07%).
The Communications sector (0.44%) remains the least inflationary category despite the strong increase in rates applied on May 30, which substantially raised the prices of additional mobile phone recharges and generated protests and controversies throughout the island, mainly among university students.
Formal market inflation rises in August for the first time in a year and a half
Real inflation, according to independent expert
According to estimates by Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, real inflation on the island in 2025, which unlike the monthly reports of the ONEI, includes prices in the largest and best-stocked informal market, “would be around 70%.”
Inflation has tripled prices on the island since 2020, according to official statistics. The consumer price index (CPI) closed in 2021 above 77%; while in 2022 it stood at 39.07%; in 2023, at 31.34%, and in 2024, at 24.88%.
Cuba has been mired in a serious economic and energy crisis for more than five years, evident in the shortage of basic products (food, medicine and fuel), high inflation, economic contraction, growing dollarization and prolonged daily blackouts.
The combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions since the first Trump Administration (2017-2021) and failed national economic and monetary policies have aggravated the structural problems of the national economy.
The situation has caused great social discontent, visible in the unusual protests of recent years and in a migratory wave unprecedented in scale and duration that removed nearly a million people from the country in just three years 1921-1923.
OnCuba/EFE
