Workout
Meditation
Contact Us
The government of Cuba announced that will eliminate subsidies from the supply booka system established in 1962 to ensure that citizens could access basic products such as rice, sugar and bread at controlled prices. This measure is included in a economic reform package announced by the prime minister Manuel Marrero Cruz during the recent National Assembly of People’s Power.
Marrero described this measure as a necessity to reduce economic distortions of that country. “There is no going back”declared, according to TelemundoMiami. In any case, the government promised redirect subsidies towards the most vulnerable sectorsalthough it did not specify how this redistribution will be carried out.
According to the aforementioned medium, the end of the subsidies will directly affect the Cuban populationsince products that were previously available at very low prices will now be sold at market values, making them inaccessible to most. For many families, rice, sugar and subsidized bread are essential products for daily nutrition.
Although the government, headed by Miguel Díaz-Canel, promised to help those most in needThe lack of details about how these changes will be implemented generates uncertainty among the population. Prices of basic products will continue to increase, which will worsen the poverty of a significant sector of the Cuban people.
In parallel with the elimination of subsidies, the Cuban government adopted a policy of partial dollarization for certain essential services. This includes the implementation of prices in US currency for services such as the internet. This determination moves away from Díaz-Canel’s promise in 2020, when He publicly assured that the Cuban economy would not be dollarized.
An example of this trend is the case of data packages from the state company ETECSAwhere rates in Cuban pesos are high, while the best options are reserved for those who can pay in dollars. This makes US currency the primary currency for accessing certain serviceswhich further pushes the Cuban peso out of circulation in daily life.
On the other hand, the Cuban government also announced that the controls on imports carried out by calls “mules”, because the authorities consider that these practices negatively affect the economy. These people are the ones They bring products from abroad, mainly from Floridato sell them on the island.
As explained Associated PressCuba announced these measures due to the economic crisis that crosses the islandmarked by uncontrolled inflation, growing dollarization, product shortages and the expansion of the black currency market.
Despite implementing an economic plan in 2023 to correct these distortions, the results were not as expected. “We are dissatisfied that the necessary progress has not been made, especially in those issues that our population demands.“Marrero said this Wednesday, during the year-end plenary session of the National Assembly.
On the other hand, the government also faces other structural challenges that affect the quality of life of Cubans, such as national power outages, daily blackouts and problems in essential services such as transportthe supply of water and the garbage collection. It was in this context that the Cuban authorities decided to implement these new economic policies.
