Forex News

Cuba more than quadruples dollar/peso exchange rate

2022.08.04 05:27

Cuba more than quadruples dollar/peso exchange rate
FILE PHOTO: Cuban flags are displayed at a commercial road in downtown Havana, Cuba, July 20, 2022. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/

By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba announced it will begin purchasing on Thursday dollars and other convertible currencies at nearly five times the current rate in an effort to undercut the informal money market and capture the funds.

Central Bank President Marta Wilson Gonzalez, appearing on state-run television on Wednesday evening, said the state-run banking system had set a new rate of 120 pesos to the dollar, compared to the official fixed rate of 24 pesos, and 115 pesos on the informal market, according to independent online news outlet El Toque tracker, the most watched in the communist-run country.

Gonzalez said the new rate would float and did not apply to most activities of the state-dominated economy which would still operate at the fixed rate in effect for more than 18 months.

Cuba stopped accepting dollars in 2020 citing U.S. sanctions and stopped selling convertible currency for pesos to the public soon after, stating it simply did not have the cash.

Economy Minister Alejandro Gil, appearing with the central bank president on Wednesday, said in the near future he hoped to resume currency exchanges, but the first step would be capturing the informal market.

“Today there is a high level of foreign currency that is entering the country that is not being captured by the national financial system,” he said.

Hit by harsh new U.S. sanctions, the pandemic and current high international prices for goods and shipping, the near-bankrupt, import-dependent economy grew 1.3% last year after declining 10.9% in 2020. Gil said a gradual if slow recovery continued without giving figures.

Shortages of food, medicine, fuel and now electricity have led to scattered protests in recent months.

Pavel Vidal, a former Cuban central bank economist who teaches at Colombia’s Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, said the measure addressed a major complaint of tourists who exchanged money at the fixed government rate in hotels and then discovered outside on the street everything is pegged at the informal rate.

Vidal said it would also benefit “the private sector which often receives foreign currency from tourists and that the banks will once more accept and exchange physical dollars at 120 which unlocks one of the major impediments that remittances had as they were fetching 24 pesos.”

Source

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 69,419.60 2.34%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,428.22 1.45%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.11%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 563.58 2.50%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 165.92 5.54%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.05%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.513193 2.33%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.168713 8.00%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,426.16 1.28%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.160528 1.48%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.334393 2.65%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 4.67 0.86%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000018 6.19%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 2,870.97 1.52%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 69,348.58 2.51%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 23.94 5.34%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 2,428.45 1.40%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 343.44 4.74%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 10.81 5.50%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00 0.02%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 6.02 0.92%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 1.97 7.36%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 3.88 3.64%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 66.05 0.70%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 3.81 6.54%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 8.48 6.94%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 2,552.65 1.51%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 7.14 6.29%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000008 7.82%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 7.38 6.24%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 452.60 9.33%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.12%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.24 11.67%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 158.65 1.05%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.12%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.093462 2.82%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.11063 6.59%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 19.08 0.99%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 18.24 3.74%
first-digital-usd
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 1.00 0.19%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.303047 4.52%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 1.52 5.16%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 37.81 1.89%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 2.08 8.99%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 3.39 4.45%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 135.43 6.37%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.072219 2.78%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.488366 4.05%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.560596 1.85%
immutable-x
Immutable (IMX) $ 1.08 3.78%