In fact, many Cubans, already living under inflation and product scarcity, do not know how they will deal with the new 500 percent rise in fuel prices.
The cash-strapped communist island government announced a five-fold increase on Monday from February 1, as part of a series of measures aimed at reducing its budget deficit.
She added that the cost of a liter of regular gasoline will rise from 25 pesos (20 US cents) to 132 pesos, while the price of premium gasoline will jump from 30 to 156 pesos.
To buy ten liters of fuel for his motorcycle, enough for a week, Domingo Wong told AFP that he would now have to pay more than half of his monthly salary of about $21.
“Ten liters is what I consume in a week without doing anything special, just daily: going to work, bringing my daughter to school, visiting my sister,” the 57-year-old building guard said as he waited patiently in line. Fill his bike.
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The country, with a population of 11 million people, is experiencing the worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the 1990s due to the consequences of the Corona virus epidemic, the tightening of US sanctions in recent years, and the structural weakness in the economy.
According to official estimates, the Cuban economy will contract by 2% in 2023, while inflation will reach 30% in 2023. Independent experts say this is likely an underestimate.
It is already difficult to obtain fuel and other essentials.
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The Cuban government, which subsidizes almost all basic goods and services, hinted last month that it would have to increase fuel prices.
Economy Minister Alejandro Gil said, “The country cannot maintain the price of fuel, which is the cheapest in the world.”
The government on Monday also confirmed a 25 percent increase in electricity prices for major residential consumers, as well as an increase in natural gas prices.
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Many Cubans now fear worse inflation.
“Prices in general will rise because even the food we eat depends on transportation,” Rafael Olivier, 21, a motorcycle taxi driver, told AFP in Havana.
Javier Vega, a 33-year-old driver who works for a ride-hailing company, said he feared the impact on trip prices in a country where public transportation is already limited due to shortages of fuel and car parts.
Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said that the price rise was precisely aimed at reducing the shortage, “purchasing fuel” and obtaining “stable supplies.”
Authorities also announced that tourists would now pay for fuel in foreign currency, which is also in short supply, and said the central bank was considering adjusting the exchange rate against the dollar.
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The peso has been devalued twice since 2021.
Economist Omar Everlini Perez told AFP that fuel may be cheap in Cuba compared to the rest of the world, “but if you compare it to salaries in the country, it is very expensive.”
“Our purchasing power is not enough, and it will affect all of us,” said freelancer Juan Antonio Cruzata, 59.
The average Cuban salary is about $40 per month.