Cash crisis: Up to three days to withdraw money from ATMs in Cuba

A group of people affected bycash shortage They expressed their discomfort this Friday in Havana, highlighting that they face delays of up to three days to access an enabled and functioning ATM.

The long lines in front are evidence that this situation has lasted forever among citizens, he warned inFacebook the mediaDW Spanish.

“It took me three days to withdraw money from an ATM, today I came here and took out", denounced a man who saw his life turned upside down because it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to access cash.

Another person described the chaotic situation in Havana: “There is no money, the ATMs are broken, when they put money they put little”.

According to the economistPavel Vidal, scholar at the Javeriana University of Colombia, thecuban crisis has triggered the informal economy and especially the informal exchange market “which an important part works in cash, soyou have a government issuing a lot of money without the capacity, without the dollars, to be able to print the pesos”.

The professor blamed the government because “it has not wanted to print higher denomination bills either,The highest denomination bill is one thousand pesos, which in the informal market exchange rate is three dollars.”.

“The latest data that appears in the statistical yearbook,70 percent of that money is in cash and only 30 is in the banks"said Vidal, pointing out the ineffective process ofbanking which forcibly promoted the regime, as a palliative to the severe liquidity crisis.

The cash shortage is so severe that drastic measures are applied in some Cuban territories.

In the province of Sancti Spiritus, theBank of Credit and Commerce(BANDEC)made the decision not to restock the ATMs at its main branch.

Luis Francisco Castro Díaz, BANDEC Business Manager in the territory, confirmed toEscambray that this measure could be extended to other municipalities in the coming weeks.

According to the media, citizens who need cash are forced to stand in long lines to be attended to by the cashier service within the branch itself and will be able to withdraw up to 5 thousand pesos.

HeCentral Bank of Cuba (BCC) reiterated in recent days to the Cubans that, in the face of the appellantshortage of cash at ATMs, go to the warehouses or other commercial establishments of the Ministry of Internal Trade (MINCIN)in order to withdraw cash from your bank accounts through the "Caja Extra" service.

Although the systemIt was approved since September 2021 Apparently it has not had the expected follow-up, so the BCC reiterates to its clients how to do it.