Havana/This Monday, the dollar reached 400 Cuban pesos in the informal market, according to the representative rate published daily The touch. The figure, which had already approached last year, marks a new milestone in the deterioration of the Cuban economy, where the national currency loses more and more purchasing power while the American currency establishes the rhythm for almost everything that is bought and sold on the island.
What for months seemed a stagnation around 360 to 370 pesos per dollar, He started shaking in June. The Cubi Coins and Finance Observatory (OMFI) already warned that the month could be “moved”, and provided that the currency could touch a roof between 390 and 400 pesos in a short time. Less than two months later the prediction was completed.
Already in May 2024 the dollar had approached dangerously to that same figure, although shortly after it fell to almost 300 pesos. However, in a dollarized economy, with the cuban weight increasing Fulas It was predictable.
The measures of the State themselves, engaged in dollarizing every profitable business in the country, boost the supremacy of the dollar above the peso and the extinct soon, say some – freely convertible currency (MLC). From food to fuelimmediate access to the most basic resources imposes as a requirement the possession of dollars. Many stores that previously operated in MLC have begun to sell in the American currencydisplacing even more to the Cuban weight and leaving without real options to those who only have income in national currency.
In a dollarized economy, with the increasingly weak Cuban weight and an official policy that insists on depending on foreign currencies, a new ruling of the fulas was predictable
Recently, with the massive opening of dollar stores, the MLC, It has collapsed and was quoted this Monday at 205 pesos. The OMFI reported an increase in Cubans seeking to part with their savings in that virtual currency, created in 2019 along with the US currency. In this climate of uncertainty, experts were clear when advising Cubans: we must minimize balances in MLC and trust stable currencies such as the dollar.
The consequences of all these processes and measures that act at the same time are visible: an important part of the population depends on remittances or informal activities to achieve dollars and be able to support themselves. On the other hand, citizens without access to them are forced to compete for a minimum of products that are still sold in national currency and reach few.
Last Friday, the Western Hemisphere Affairs Office of the US Department of State, censored the management made by Havana of the crisis. “The Cuban regime spent years criticizing the dollar, only to adopt it out of economic necessity. Unable to manage its own currency, they now depend on the same system they tried to prohibit.”
“Unable to manage their own currency, now they depend on the same system that they tried to prohibit”
Miguel Díaz-Canel himself recently recognized that dollarization has contributed to Increase social inequality In the country. “To overcome this situation (the economic crisis) we have been forced to the partial dollarization of the economy, which has somehow favored those who have certain resources and capital or receives remittances,” he admitted to Parliament last July.
He Sending remittances It has also changed radically in recent years. The official roads, in the hands of the State and of financial entities such as Fincimex, have lost ground against informal channels that today control the largest slice of the flow of dollars to the island. According to data from Cuba Century 21 published in February, only 7.32% of remittances pass through the official channels.
The rest enters through travelers, family and acquaintances who carry cash, or through small businesses of informal change, which operate quickly and less restrictions. In a matter of hours, the Cuban exile can pay – very low commissions – equis amount of dollars in the US that immediately replenish their relatives on the island. This phenomenon has further weakened the control of the State, desperate to acquire hard currency.
The increase in the dollar to 400 pesos is the concrete expression of all these distortions and the reflection of a non -direction economy, where the peso has no support, the State fails to guarantee essential goods and citizens see how their purchasing power evaporates day after day.
