From our Bureau of Socialist Voodoo Economics with some assistance from our Bureau of Extreme Misery Indexes and our Bureau of The Enduring Presence of Fidel’s Ghost
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Castro, Inc. has been forced to exist in the dollar-and-euro world. Fidel himself initiated this conversion back in the 1990’s, and this led to the creation of apartheid tourism.
Castro, Inc. hobbled along for a while, but along came the Covid plague and the collapse of the tourist boom, and Castro, Inc. has not found any way to adjust to the harsh realities of real world economics (as opposed to socialist and communist voodoo economics)
CiberCuba reports that the price of the dollar in the Cuban informal market broke a new record this Thursday after trading on average at 217 CUP, two more pesos compared to the 215 it was sold for last Sunday.
Meanwhile, the value of the freely convertible currency (MLC) also rose, in this case from 196 to 197, one more peso compared to the previous day, according to the rate published by the independent digital media el TOQUE on July 20.
The euro, for its part, climbed to a value of 224 CUP, a high figure that it reached surprisingly this Wednesday, after increasing four pesos in just 24 hours.
At the very same time, inflation continues to spiral upwards, intensifying the loss of the peso’s purchasing power. Any way you look at it, the misery index in Cuba is out of control, and Castro, Inc. has just admitted that it can’t fix anything.
And since Castro, Inc. does not believe in adjusting salaries to keep up with inflation, Cubans who don’t belong to the island’s oligarchy can only expect more suffering in the months ahead.
Diario de Cuba reports on this abysmal situation:
The price of the dollar in the Cuban informal market breaks a new record this Thursday after trading on average at 217 CUP, two more pesos compared to the 215 it was sold for last Sunday.
The value of the freely convertible currency (MLC) also rose, in this case from 196 to 197, one more peso compared to the previous day, according to the rate published by the independent digital media el TOQUE on July 20.
The euro, for its part, maintains its value at 224 CUP, a high figure that it reached surprisingly this Wednesday, after increasing four pesos at once in just 24 hours.
Prices have increased in Cuba by 18% so far in 2023, and 45% compared to the same period in 2022, the official newspaper Granma reported after a meeting of the Economic Affairs Commission of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP).
The communist newspaper specified that “the measures adopted to control prices have not yet achieved their fundamental objective, due to certain factors that affect their implementation and compliance.” Vladimir Regueiro Ale, Minister of Finance and Prices, “acknowledged the existing difficulties around the matter.”
Regueiro Ale recalled that Cuba has an open economy that does not escape the difficult international situation, characterized by the increase in costs. Therefore, together with the high fiscal deficit in the last fiscal years, the consumer price index registered a growth of 39%.
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