Cuba Announces Price Cut to Help Increase Value of National Currency

The Cuban government announced today a cut in prices of food products as part of the measures to gradually increase the purchasing value of the peso in the short term

A note of the Ministry of Finance and Prices indicates the reduction in prices, effective as of today, will be around 20 percent in the chain of stores selling in hard currency and the parallel market of the Ministry of Domestic Commerce (Mincin in Spanish) for a group of items, mainly food products.

In the case of rice, sold freely at 5.00 Cuban Pesos (CUP) the pound, can be bought now for 4.00 CUP, and the rice produced in Cuba, will be reduced from 3.50 to 3.00 pesos. For peas sold freely, the cut will be of 50 cents, to 3.00 CUP the pound.

The official note refers to generalize the sale of chicken meat in a big format (boxes), applying a single method of price formation for the chains of hard currency collecting stores and the Mincin parallel market, which represents a cut of six percent in prices, the note adds.

According to the source, further measures are being studied with the same purpose, which will be informed at the appropriate time.

The note explains these cuts respond to the political will of the Party’s and Government leadership to do everything possible to improve the situation of the people amid present limitations, as well as due to the fall in food prices in the world market.

The list of products whose prices have been cut include some 70 items, among them cooking oil, chicken and giblets, turkey, hashed beef, crackers, chocolates and other sweets, seasoners and instant drinks.