Cuba currency reform will take 3 years - ex-minister

Cuba currency reform will take 3 years: ex-minister
AFP

The unification of Cuba's dual currency system will take at least three
years, the architect of the unpopular two-decades old policy of using
dollars and convertible pesos has said.
The government announced last month that it would phase out the existing
system as part of President Raul Castro's gradual attempt to streamline
Cuba's Soviet-style economy.
Under current rules, a minority of Cubans who have dollars can buy
convertible pesos (CUC) at a one for one rate, and use them to buy
scarce goods in well-stocked special state stores.
Cubans' salaries, however, are paid in non-convertible pesos (CUP),
which are valued at 24 to a convertible peso and do not go far in a
country where builders, teachers and doctors, for example, are paid $20
a month.
Amid uncertainty about when the change will happen, Jose Luis Rodriguez,
the communist state's minister of economy and planning between 1993 and
2009, said it would take time to devalue the exchange rate.
"This process will likely take at least three years," he said, referring
to the need to first devalue the exchange rate for business
transactions, and then secondly for private individuals.
Rodriguez said currency unification would "create the conditions for
better management and measurement of the economy," but it involves a
"profound structural change" for those providing goods and services in
the country.
The government established the current system to steer hard currency
into its coffers which it needs to buy bulk food on international
markets for the country's 11 million population.
While Cubans enjoy almost free education and health benefits, housing
and a subsidized food basket, most say they still struggle to put food
on the table.

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