HAVANA.- Gasoline is the thermometer of the economy,” estimates Rafael Oliver, a 21-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, anticipating a new increase in prices in Cubaafter the regime announced a 500% increase in the value of fuel in an attempt, with other measures, to reduce its fiscal deficit.
The Cuban regime recently announced an increase in fuel prices. Normal gasoline, special gasoline, diesel and all fuels will be affected by this 500% increase.
Thus, the liter of normal gasoline will go from 25 Cuban pesos (20 cents of the dollar) to 132 pesos (1.10 dollars), which is equivalent to an increase of 528%, while the special one will increase from 30 (25 cents of the dollar). ) to 156 Cuban pesos (1.30 dollars), which represents +520%, detailed the Minister of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro, on state television.
The dictatorship’s Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez, specified that state companies and private carriers will be able to buy fuel “at wholesale prices,” which will only increase by 50%.
Rodríguez highlighted that most public transportation fares will maintain “their current prices,” but announced significant increases in air tickets for internal lines and in interprovincial bus trips.
The dictatorship, which subsidizes almost all essential goods and services, announced at the end of December a battery of measures aimed at reducing the budget deficit, at a time when the island faces a deep economic crisis.
With a salary of 2,600 pesos (21 dollars), Domingo Wong, a 57-year-old father, doesn’t know how he is going to manage. “With the new price, 10 liters of gasoline is half of my salary,” this guard who is waiting at a gas station to refuel his motorcycle explains to AFP.
“I consume 10 liters in a week, without doing anything special, the normal thing: going to work, taking my daughter to school, going to my sister’s house,” he says.
It all depends on transportation
The increase “affects us all because it is very expensive, the purchasing power is not enough for that,” confides Juan Antonio Cruzata, a 59-year-old independent worker.
In addition to the difficulty in purchasing fuel, many Cubans fear that the measure will further fuel the inflationalready galloping since 2021. Prices rose 39% in 2022, 30% in 2023, according to official figures that experts consulted by AFP consider underestimated.
“Gasoline is the thermometer of a country, literally, of a country’s economy, because everything depends on transportation,” estimates Oliver, while getting on the motorcycle that he uses daily to provide mototaxi services.
He warns that “all prices are going to rise in general, because even the food you eat comes on transport.”
“It seems to me that everything is going to be affected by the increase in fuel prices,” agrees Javier Vega (33), who works for a private transportation agency.
Vega foresees an increase in fare prices for customers in a country where public transport is already limited by a lack of fuel and spare parts.
Cubawith 11 million inhabitants, faces a chronic fuel crisis, which worsened in April 2023. The increase in fuel prices “is intended to buy fuel” and “achieve a stable supply,” justified the Minister of Energy and Mines of the regime, Vicente de la O Levy.
The regime also confirmed a 25% increase in the electricity rate starting in March for large consumers in the residential sector. There will also be an increase in the bill for liquefied gas and water, as well as a reform of the ration card, the famous “supply book.”
Source: With information from AFP
