Cuba will begin this Tuesday to sell dollars to the population, two weeks after banks and exchange houses began to buy foreign currency with the intention of building a foreign exchange market.
“We are going to start selling foreign currency as of Tuesday,” Economy Minister Alejandro Gil said during the Mesa Redonda television program.
The measure is aimed at “building a foreign exchange market” in the country “that allows a legal exchange of currency, which allows progress in giving the national currency greater purchasing power,” Gil said.
With the intention to snatch dollars from the informal marketon August 4, banks and exchange houses began to buy dollars at 120 Cuban pesos per US dollar, a rate that at that time was similar to that in force in the informal sector.
The sale of the dollar had been suspended since June 2021 due to lack of liquidity. The price of the US currency soared almost five times on the black market after the government put into force a financial reform in January of that year, with which it fixed the currency at 24 Cuban pesos.
Three weeks ago the authorities explained that, without having foreign currency to sell, they had to start only with the purchase.
The president of the Central Bank, Marta Sabina Wilson, said that the measure had “a favorable result”. In these 20 days, financial entities have “bought 10 times more foreign currency than they would have bought in a month with the exchange rate of 24” Cuban pesos.
But the sale of dollars will only be aimed at citizens, not at small and medium-sized private companies, he said, quoted by the AFP news agency.
“The exchange rate that has been taken into account (for the sale) remains at 120 Cuban pesos per currency,” Wilson said.
The sale of dollars will be limited to branches of Cadeca, the Cuban exchange housesbut local airports and banks will not be authorized for this operation.
These branches, located in the center of each municipality, will only “sell what they have bought,” said the president of the Central Bank, clarifying that each user can only purchase up to 100 dollars.
This price of 120 pesos per dollar does not cover all economic activities.
The Government maintains two exchange rates in force, with which the official parity of 24 pesos will continue to be in force for transactions of state companies and other activities of the economy of the socialist island.
When the purchase was announced, Cuban economists criticized the move as incomplete, saying it would skyrocket the price of the US currency on the black market.
At that time the informal rate was around 120 pesos per dollar, yesterday it was quoted at 140 pesos on the black market.
“We are going to defend the exchange rate at 120. Now we are going to find a way for the State, already participating in the sale operation, to be able to defend that exchange rate,” said Minister Gil.
In a first step, the authorities have to “stabilize the exchange rate” so that the State can regain control of the foreign exchange market that he had lost, he concluded.
