Manuel Marrero says that it is unfair to compare prices at MLC stores with those of small and medium-sized businesses.

The Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz defended the high prices in the stores in Freely Convertible Currency compared to the ceiling established for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), arguing that the state purchases from expensive markets with fewer benefits.

When addressing the National Assembly of People's Power, the official acknowledged that the prices in state stores in MLC are higher than those of some products they have come across; but defended that "it is unfair to make that comparative analysis."

"Our foreign currency collection stores are facing a scenario as complex as the one we have expressed here. They do not buy those resources, such as chicken, oil, in the same markets where non-state management entities buy them," he emphasized.

He said that state-owned stores "do not engage in the illegal currency market, they operate at 1x120, therefore the analysis is different, they have to go buy at more distant markets at higher prices because we have had difficulties in paying the suppliers, paying very expensive shipping costs, so it is not fair to make that analysis," he justified.

The Cuban regime capped the price of several products sold by SMEs last week and has since fined establishments that do not comply with the measure.

At the same time, he has announced a reorganization in the state and non-state sectors, clarifying that it is not a witch hunt against private enterprises.

However, officials and supporters of the regime have even suggested that small and medium-sized enterprises stop importing, as Aleida Guevara did in an interview last week.

Cuba is experiencing an unprecedented crisis, with almost 90 percent of the population living in extreme poverty, facing unbridled inflation, hunger, all as a result of the government's poor economic policies implemented in 2021.