Cuba is included in the anti-inflation plan of mutual aid for economic and commercial growth with Latin American countries, announced this Thursday by the president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
In his traditional morning press conference at the National Palace, the president made an extensive report on the Mexican economy in which he highlighted direct foreign investments “that are progressing like never before,” and revealed that he has already held talks with the presidents of Brazil, Colombia , Cuba and Argentina on their initiative, according to a report from the Prensa Latina (PL) agency.
We have achieved the country’s financial stability without raising taxes, raising fuel prices or putting the country into debt. morning conference https://t.co/toLoheJPAy
– Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) March 2, 2023
López Obrador added that he still needs to consult with the Chilean Gabriel Boric and the Bolivian Luis Arce, although the Argentine Alberto Fernández promised to contact them from Buenos Aires.
He added that this Thursday he will speak with Xiomara Castro, from Honduras, “because we are going to have an initial teleconference on April 15 first, and then a face-to-face one.”
López Obrador announced that the foreign ministers, ministers of Finance, Economy and Commerce are reaching an agreement to seek exchanges in the export and import sectors of food and other goods with the purpose of facing the high cost of life together.
He also said that they are starting now, that they are going to start the plan little by little and that it will be expanded.
“It is an agreement and we are also going to invite distributors, merchants, importers, those who sell and understand, to find prices, remove tariffs, eliminate barriers that prevent food from being obtained at a good price,” he explained.
The world is currently experiencing a inflationary crisis of multiple factors, including the impact caused during the last two years by the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, deepened by the protracted military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
In the case of Cuba, prices in the formal market doubled in the last two years since the entry into force of the Sorting Taskaccording to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) recently managed by the agency Eph.
Prices doubled in the Cuban formal market between 2021 and 2022
According to the ONEI report, the year-on-year Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the formal market stood at 39.07% in December 2022. This indicator, in the same month of the previous year, was at 77.33%.
The document does not include the evolution of prices in the majority and best assortment of the informal market, more prone to inflation due to severe shortages and the total lack of regulation.
Cuba imports 80% of what it consumes, according to the United Nations. Therefore, the depreciation of the Cuban peso (CUP) in 2022 is relevant, which went from 72 CUP per dollar to around 165 in the informal market, although it reached 200 in the middle of that year.
Various private sources have published estimates that place inflation in this market at triple-digit figures during 2022.
