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The Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso Vázquez, explained on state television the details of the new management, control, and allocation system for foreign currency, approved by Decree-Law 113 of the Council of State. He assured that the measure does not aim to “dollarize the economy,” but that rhetoric is something the Cubans are already well acquainted with.
The content of the decree reveals an almost exact continuity with the policies of former minister Alejandro Gil Fernández, who was recently tried for corruption and espionage. Both models share the same ideological discourse, the same centralized approach, and the same effects of inequality and state control over foreign currencies.
In this article, we outline step by step how the new Decree-Law 113 shares with the Task of Ordering the same logic of centralized control of currency, access segmentation, and absolute priority for the acquisition and rationing of foreign currency, although it now operates on an openly multimonetary basis.
In practice, it recycles the objectives and methods of the Ordering, but adapted to an economy that is already de facto "re-dollarized."
Continuity of declared objectives
Both frameworks are presented as "technical" pieces to update the economic model, improve efficiency, and organize the monetary and financial system
Both the Tarea Ordenamiento and the new decree are justified as necessary steps to "strengthen the national economy" and make better use of external resources, while still adhering to the discourse surrounding the centrality of the Cuban peso
State management and currency rationing
In the Order Task, the State already reserved the role of decision-maker regarding who would have access to foreign currency, through controls over the official exchange market, the MLC channel, and the allocation of supplies and imports
Decree-Law 113 upholds that principle but formalizes it. A system for the management and allocation of foreign currency is now established, where the MEP and the BCC define the lawful sources of currency, how they can be used, and who receives ACAD or other authorizations to operate in hard currency
Segmentation of economic circuits
The Ordering Task, although it proclaimed unification, ended up coexisting with a parallel MLC circuit to capture remittances and sustain imports, which created a gap between those who had access to foreign currency and those who only operated in CUP
The decree-law consolidates that same duality. It explicitly recognizes two circuits, one in CUP and another in foreign currencies, and establishes specific rules for the actors who can legally transact in foreign currency within the country
Partial currency capture and retention
In the Regulation, the design aimed to "collect" foreign currency through channels controlled by the State (MLC, official exchange rate, banks), thereby reducing the margins of the informal market
The new scheme continues that revenue-raising logic and, to that end, creates "legal" pathways for accessing foreign currency, while simultaneously imposing mandatory withholdings and strict control over accounts and transactions in foreign currencies
Continuity of the ideological narrative
At both moments, it is emphasized that monetary measures do not signify a renunciation of socialism or a desire to "dollarize" the economy, but rather serve as temporary instruments to protect national interests and organize the system
Both the Regulation and the current decree are accompanied by a narrative of "temporality" and a promise to return to the centrality of the CUP, without establishing clear deadlines or concrete mechanisms to reverse the dependence on foreign currency
What are the differences between Decree Law 113 and the Ordering Task?
The Task of Ordering and Decree-Law 113 stem from the same issue (chronic foreign exchange scarcity and monetary distortions), but they are almost the reverse of each other.
The Ordenamiento aimed to refocus everything on the CUP and "eliminate dollarization," while the 113 acknowledges and legalizes a selective partial dollarization for specific actors. Below are the main differences by key areas
Central objective
Task of Ordering: it aimed for monetary and exchange unification, eliminating the CUC and establishing a single rate of 24 CUP per dollar, with the CUP as the only legal tender in circulation
Decree-Law 113 does not aim to unify but to manage and ration the scarcity of foreign currency; it creates a legal framework for internal transactions in foreign currencies (dollar, euro, etc.) and defines who can use them and how
2. Resulting monetary architecture
Task on Ordering: designed a scheme for "a single currency" in formal terms (CUP), although in practice, circuits in MLC survived alongside a strong informal market
Decree-Law 113 explicitly consolidates a multimonetary system, with two circuits: one in CUP and another in foreign currencies for authorized actors; it is no longer a "mistake" of the model, but its design
3. Reach on the population
Task Ordering: it directly affected the entire population (salaries, pensions, rates, subsidies, regulated prices), with a general redesign of income and expenses in CUP
Decree-Law 113 focuses on economic actors (state, foreign, and private companies, Mipymes, TCP, local projects, foreign investment), leaving the average citizen in CUP, unless they participate in those circuits or receive foreign currency
4. Treatment of Dollarization
Task Ordering: it proclaimed the elimination of internal dollarization, shifting all formal transactions to Cuban pesos and presenting operations in MLC as exceptional and "temporary."
Decree-Law 113: recognizes that the economy is partially dollarized and creates the legal framework for that coexistence; speaking of a "temporary period" is more of a political statement than a concrete operational goal
5. Instruments and mechanisms
Task of Ordering: its toolkit included the single exchange rate, the elimination of the CUC, the reform of salaries and pensions, the removal of subsidies, and the restructuring of relative prices
Decree-Law 113: introduces specific financial and administrative instruments: currency accounts regulated by the BCC, hard currency self-financing schemes, Currency Access Capacity Allocations (ACAD), and detailed regulations for collections and payments in foreign currency
Currency Access Logic
Task of Ordering: the emphasis was on a “signal” exchange rate (24x1) and on channeling foreign currency through the banking system and the MLC channel, but without such an explicit regime regarding who could use them internally
Decree-Law 113: precisely defines which sectors and operations can use foreign currency, what the "legal" sources of access are (exports, foreign e-commerce, ZEDM, donations, financing, purchases on the official market, etc.), and under what conditions part of those funds can be assigned or withheld
7. Relationship with the exchange market
Task Ordering: it linked the reform to the creation of a formal exchange market at the rate of 24 CUP, which was overwhelmed by inflation and the informal market
Decree-Law 113: it is presented as a part of the "Macroeconomic Stabilization Program" and the revitalization of the foreign exchange market, paving the way for future transformations in the exchange rate and in the relationship between CUP and foreign currencies
8. Place of the citizen and the CUP
Sorting Task: it placed the citizen at the center of the narrative (salaries, basket, subsidies), although in practice it eroded the purchasing power of income in CUP
Decree-Law 113: it places the State and the economic actors with the ability to generate or manage foreign currency at the center; the "ordinary" citizen remains on the periphery, depending on their ability to connect to those streams of hard currency
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