The Cuban Government has announced this week that it will raise the price of gasoline in the country by more than 500% as of February 1, a decision that is part of a package of economic measures designed to alleviate the crisis in 2024, but that It will make life on the Island difficult. Since the end of the year, the authorities had begun to talk about a possible increase in the price of fuel, which has now just materialized. During an intervention before the Economic Affairs Commission of the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) in December, President Miguel Díaz-Canel maintained that Cuba has “perhaps the cheapest fuel in the area, one of the cheapest in the world.” and that, therefore, “everyone here almost agrees that it should be raised.”
Then, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz appeared at the second regular session of the ANPP to announce the package of measures that, among other things, contemplated an increase in the price of fuel. “In what country in the world can you buy nine liters of gasoline with one dollar?” said Marrero. Finally, this Monday the Cuban Minister of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro, confirmed that a liter of regular gasoline, which at the moment has a value of 25 Cuban pesos (0.20 US cents), will cost 132 Cuban pesos ( $1.10). Likewise, special gasoline will rise from 30 (0.25 cents) to 156 Cuban pesos (1.30 dollars), a significant increase that the country's drivers will have to deal with this year. Cuban leaders fail to mention, however, that these prices are low compared to gasoline prices anywhere in the world, but not in a country where the Cuban peso is increasingly weakening against the dollar and where the monthly minimum wage is of 2,100 Cuban pesos (17.5 dollars).
With this measure, the authorities equate fuel prices with the current official exchange rate of approximately 120 pesos per dollar. In the informal market, in parallel, the dollar oscillates between 260 and 270 Cuban pesos. According to the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, this increase “is intended to buy fuel, to be able to supply […] to continue buying” and “achieve a stable supply.”
From now on, tourists who visit the country must buy fuel in dollars, through electronic payment methods in the new 28 service centers that the Government has created to accompany the measure and that will be added to the 613 with which it already exists. the country counts. “The tourism sector and foreign visitors who come to the country do exchange the foreign currency they bring at 120×1, however, the price of gasoline is currently at 24×1. There we can see the subsidy, to tourism, to abroad, to that person who in the world pays gasoline at 1.30 USD, here pays it at 30 Cuban pesos,” said La O Levy.
Cubans not only begin 2024 with a rise in the price of gasoline, but also with an increase in the electricity rate, which will increase by 25% in some homes starting March 1. The prices of water, transportation services and liquefied gas cylinders will also rise. The authorities themselves had recognized that these increases would be a blow to the Cuban family. “This is going to directly impact the population,” Marrero said.
During the last two years, Cuba has experienced one of the most notable crises in its history, with inflation around 30%, a panorama that for many has already surpassed the so-called Special Period at the beginning of the nineties. During 2023, Cubans suffered countless hours of electrical blackouts or long lines to buy fuel, a situation that the authorities have blamed on the United States economic embargo on Cuba and the failure to comply with agreements by countries that supply gasoline to the island. island.
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