Holguín/Sancti Spíritus/Havana/A little more than a month after the entry into force of the official floating ratewhich promised to revalue the national currency, the dollar has skyrocketed to 500 pesos in some places in Cuba, such as Holguín. There are ten CUP more per USD compared to what the independent platform indicates The Touch this thursday (490), in its daily monitoring of the purchase and sale of currencies in the informal market.
It is credited by a man from Holguín who owns the electric tricycle he works with, whose electronic box burned out. When inquiring about prices, a private seller told him that they were $190. “I told him how much the change was, because I didn’t have USD nor did I have anywhere to get them, and after insisting that he preferred dollars, he told me that the dollar was 500 pesos.”
At the same time, MSMEs in the eastern city have raised the prices of essential products, such as oil, spaghetti or chicken. “Starting this week, it’s going to be tremendous,” a resident of Holguín laments ironically. Some merchants argue, precisely, that inflation is due to the new price of the dollar. “Due to the rise in the USD, some price changes may be seen in certain products, but it is nothing serious, we are striving to maintain a price as fair as possible,” they promise in a WhatsApp group.
“Not fair or anything, they say they made a last purchase at one price, but the next one they make will be a dollar more expensive, so they’re going to have to raise things”
“Imagine, not fair or anything, they say that they made a last purchase at one price, but the next one they make will be a dollar more expensive, so they are going to have to raise things,” says the same woman.
In Sancti Spíritus, most informal positions offer it at the registered value The Touch490 CUP, but, says a source from this city, “there is a MSME that is taking it for 500.” Meanwhile, in Havana, in most neighborhoods the dollar is sold at 490 pesos, but two days ago, in the La Cuevita market, in San Miguel del Padrón, it was bought at 480.
That same Tuesday, the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal It recorded the failure of the most recent exchange rate measures, comparing them with the preparations for the “war of all the people”, announced after the capture by the United States of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and the death of 32 Cuban soldiers in the operation. “Exactly one month passed between the announcement of a new floating official exchange rate and the notification of the analysis and approval of plans and measures for ‘the transition to the State of War’ in Cuba,” tweeted the specialist, resident in Spain. “So far, the floating rate is fighting a battle with pain and ingloriousness.”
For the moment, Monreal continued, the peso “has devalued 3.9% against the USD with the floating rate, failing to fulfill the government’s expectation that the official ‘new exchange market’ would favor the recovery of the purchasing capacity of the national currency.”
In fact, when the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) launched an official exchange rate on December 18, without prior notice, floating characterwhich would join the other two that operate in the country – one, at 1 x 24, for centralized State allocations for goods and services considered essential, and another, at 1 x 120, for certain “entities with the capacity to generate foreign currency”, such as tourism – the Government presented it as the beginning of a transformation of the exchange market, aimed at “ordering” the economy and moving towards a future monetary unification.
In practice, however, the Island entered an even more complex stage of exchange segmentation, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in recent decades. It immediately became evident that the population ignored the official rate –paradoxically very close to that of The Touchagainst which in previous months he launched a harsh propaganda campaign – and continued to exchange his dollars in the informal market.
The peso “has devalued 3.9% against the USD with the floating rate, failing to meet the government’s expectation”
During the following weeks, it could be seen how in the state Exchange Houses (Cadeca), where the dollar is conspicuous by its absence and was theoretically sold this Thursday at 457.92 pesos, only elderly to collect their pension.
On January 9, another new policy was added to the already convoluted exchange market. The BCC opened a banking channel so that private MSMEs could buy foreign currency legally through banks, but under very strict rules.
Thus, the purchases made by these private entrepreneurs can only be made on the basis of the new floating rate, only once a month and without being able to decide the amount. This is calculated by the bank by taking the average of what the MSME entered into its tax account in the last three months, using only half of that money and converting it according to the floating exchange rate that is in force at that time.
In practice, this means that if an MSME has had low or irregular income, it will be able to buy very few dollars, even if it urgently needs them to import raw materials, pay for services or fulfill contracts. And if the business is just starting up and still has no revenue history, you could simply be left out of the game.
The BCC also made it clear that the entire process would be “banked.” The Cuban pesos necessarily come out of the fiscal account and the purchased currencies are only deposited in a foreign currency account of the economic actor himself. No cash or informal transfers, no room for maneuver. Before approving the operation, the bank will review the identity of the client, the accounts and the origin of the money, as part of the controls that today weigh on any economic activity on the Island.
