The depreciation of the euro in the informal market in Cuba is consolidating.

The dollar and the MLC remain stable today.

Current affairs
CiberCuba Editorial

15/06/2024 - 7:26am (GMT-5) |

This Saturday, the informal currency exchange market for currencies in Cuba continues to show signs of instability, although for now only the euro is declining.

At seven in the morning on June 15th, the European currency is valued at 360 CUP, which is ten pesos less than the previous day.

The dollar, for its part, remains stable at 350 pesos, a figure it reached this Friday.

Also unchanged is the Freely Convertible Currency (MLC), which has remained pegged at 300 pesos for several days.

Despite a week starting with a Monday where none of the three currencies went up or down, throughout the week the dollar and the euro, mainly, have plummeted again.

That drop came after five days last week of dizzying increase in which euros, dollars, and MLC almost recovered values prior to the slump in May.

The volatility of the informal Cuban currency market confirms time and time again the drift of the Cuban economy, as well as the uncertainty of citizens regarding the possible course of events and the growing gap in their pockets that this implies.

Exchange rate today 15/06/2024 - 7:18 a.m. in Cuba:

Exchange rate from USD to CUP according to elTOQUE: 350 CUP.

Exchange rate of the euro EUR to CUP according to elTOQUE: 360 CUP.

Exchange rate of MLC to CUP according to elTOQUE: 300 CUP.

The informal exchange rate in Cuba offered here is not officially recognized or endorsed by any financial or governmental entity.

The Cuban government continues to not make any pronouncements in economic terms about the direction of foreign currencies, but did dedicate a new chapter these days to the personal battle it maintains with the independent media outlet elToque.

In the article titled "Beyond the Dollar Price," published on June 11 in Granma newspaper, Jorge Enrique Jerez Belisario accused elToque of being "part of a fourth-generation warfare package," which would combine "actions in the media-virtual and real scenarios, to open gaps that foster confrontations and contradictions that weaken the unity of the people-Government-Party."

With a dizzying verbiage where the economy does not appear anywhere, Jerez Belisario considered elToque "as part of the unconventional warfare strategy of the United States government against Cuba," a common place for all national misfortunes.

In a context of marked governmental inaction, ElToque announced that it has reinforced controls to calculate the representative rate due to the growing suspicion of attempts to inflate or plummet values with false announcements.

In recent days, the independent media has increased explanations about the methodology it uses to calculate the rate. In one of these more recent explanations, Abraham Calás, Director of Development and Innovation of the independent media, explained why the price of currencies sometimes changes during the early morning.

The informal market itself should not exist under different conditions, but it is an imperfect substitute for an official exchange market that is not functional because it operates with an overvalued exchange rate and also does not offer dollars to those who need them," economist Pavel Vidal has insisted.

We have to take care of the informal market as long as it is necessary in the economy and the campaign what it does is distort the market, which is not good for the operation of the private sector, families, those who send remittances, etc.