The informal currency market in Cuba opens this Sunday with the dollar and the euro held at their historical highs, according to data published by elTOQUE, consolidating a week that saw consecutive records and deepened the free fall of the Cuban peso.
The dollar remains at 535 CUP, the historic high it reached on Wednesday, April 29, after surpassing the maximum projection of the Observatory of Currencies and Finances of Cuba (OMFi), which estimated a ceiling of 533 CUP for the end of April.
The euro holds steady at 610 CUP, the new all-time high recorded yesterday, Saturday, marking the second consecutive record in just 48 hours. The MLC slightly retreats to 400 CUP, down from 412.5 CUP on Saturday.
Informal exchange rate in Cuba Sunday, May 3, 2026 - 05:00
Exchange rate of the dollar (USD) to Cuban pesos CUP: 535 CUP
Exchange rate of the euro (EUR) to Cuban pesos CUP: 610 CUP
Exchange rate from (MLC) to Cuban pesos CUP: 400 CUP
The surge of the euro has been particularly striking in recent weeks. The historic jump in the euro's exchange rate occurred on April 19, when it broke through the psychological barrier of 600 CUP for the first time. Since then, it has not stopped: it rose to 605 CUP on Tuesday, April 28, and reached 610 CUP yesterday, Saturday.
Exchange Rate Evolution
Behind the sustained depreciation of the Cuban peso lies a buildup of structural factors that the regime has not been able to reverse: the energy crisis exacerbated by the interruption of oil shipments from Venezuela and the suspension of Mexican oil supplies since January 2026, the decline in tourism, the scarcity of foreign currency in the banking system, and excessive money printing linked to the fiscal deficit.
In terms of energy, Russian oil has run out and Cuba is back on the brink of blackouts: the donation of 100,000 tons of crude oil that arrived at the end of March exhausted its reserves by the end of April with no new shipments confirmed for May.
This pressure is compounded by the issuance of 2,000 and 5,000 peso notes that the Central Bank put into circulation starting April 1, a measure that created additional inflationary pressures and currency uncertainty in an already deteriorated context.
The Cuban peso in free fall has lost approximately 95% of its value against the dollar since 2020, when it was trading at 42 CUP. In just the last 12 months, the dollar has risen by 47.8% in the informal market, increasing from 345 CUP to the current 535 CUP, while the euro has jumped from about 350 CUP to 610 CUP, marking a depreciation of the peso by 74% against the European currency in just one year.
The Economist projects a contraction of the Cuban GDP by 7.2% in 2026, which would mark the worst economic decline of the island since 1959, a figure that underscores the magnitude of the crisis the country is experiencing under 67 years of communist dictatorship.
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