Cuba concluded 2025 with an interannual inflation of 14.07% in the formal market, a figure significantly lower than that registered in 2024, when the consumer price index (CPI) reached 24.88%, according to data released this Friday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
The registration, according to information from EFE, represents a reduction of around ten percentage points compared to the previous year. According to the ONEI, the monthly variation of the CPI in December was 0.88%, while the accumulated inflation for the year was also 14.07%.
The behavior of prices was uneven between the different groups of goods and services. The largest year-on-year increases were reported in Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (69.82%), Restaurants and hotels (21.46%) and Education (17.22%). Housing Services (14.47%), Food and non-alcoholic beverages (13.9%), Furniture and household items (12.68%), and Miscellaneous goods and services (12.33%) also showed relevant increases.
In contrast, the Communications sector registered the lowest interannual variation, with 0.46%, despite the increase applied at the end of May in mobile telephone rates, a measure that generated criticism and protests due to the increase in the cost of additional recharges.
The official figures only reflect the behavior of the formal market. According to estimates by Cuban economist Pavel Vidal, if prices from the informal market – the majority and better supplied – are incorporated, real inflation in 2025 could be around 70%.
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Inflation has been one of the most persistent features of the Cuban economic crisis in recent years. Since 2020, prices have tripled, according to official data: the CPI closed 2021 above 77%, it fell to 39.07% in 2022, 31.34% in 2023 and 24.88% in 2024.
These data occur in a context of prolonged economic and energy crisis, marked by shortages of food, medicine and fuel, the contraction of productive activity, the advance of dollarization and daily blackouts. The Cuban economy contracted 1.1% in 2024 and has accumulated a drop of 11% in the last five years, according to official figures. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) also predicts that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) will once again register a negative performance.
External and internal factors have contributed to the crisis, including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions since 2017 and the difficulties associated with the economic and monetary policies applied on the island. The deterioration of living conditions has led to growing social unrest and a wave of migration unprecedented in its magnitude and persistence.
EFE/OnCuba
