At the beginning of January, Cuba announced that fuel prices would rise by more than 400 percent as of February 1. This fivefold increase was canceled due to a ‘cyber security incident’ and was postponed.
Yesterday, Finance Minister Vladimir Regueiro of the communist government announced that the price will increase five times as of March 1.
Short of money
The price of a liter of regular gasoline, with an octane number of 91, which is not found in the Netherlands, rises from 25 Cuban pesos (19 cents) to 132 pesos (5.08 euros). Gasoline as we fill up in the Netherlands will cost 6.01 euros per liter in Cuba from tomorrow.
For comparison: in the Netherlands we currently pay about 2.16 euros for this.
The reason for the sudden increase? Cuba is in need of money and with this measure the government is trying to reduce the budget deficit. Remarkably, the price for public transport remains the same.
Corona aftermath
The country of 11 million people is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the 1990s.
This is partly due to the aftermath of the corona pandemic and a tightening of American sanctions. In addition, the entire Cuban economy has been structurally weakened in recent years. Last year official inflation was around 30 percent, but experts think that money actually became worth less.
Government subsidies
Cuba continually faces shortages of gasoline and other basic products. The government subsidizes almost all the goods and services that Cubans consume.
2024-02-29 00:03:08
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