A Cuban woman who returned to the island after a year living abroad shared in a TikTok video the shocking experience she had with prices when she went to the market as she typically did every Saturday.
"I returned to Cuba after a year of living outside the country, and everything impresses me, especially the prices. I can hardly understand how people are living here," said the creator, identified as @yuyudecuba.
He took 5,500 pesos —his usual budget for Saturdays— and returned home "practically empty-handed."
The trend in prices documented is striking: the bottle of oil, which used to be found between 900 and 1,200 pesos, now costs 1,800 pesos.
A bunch of bananas that was worth 100 pesos rose to 600; a pound of tomatoes went from 60 pesos to 350; and a pound of ground beef increased from 320 to 450 pesos.
Meat products also saw a price increase: a four-pound package of chicken, which previously cost between 1,000 and 1,800 pesos, is now sold for between 2,000 and 2,600 pesos.
Even the candies reflect the inflationary spiral: a lollipop has doubled in price, from 35 to 70 pesos, and a pack of four cookies has increased from 60 pesos to between 350 and 400 pesos.
"Life right now in Cuba is like living in another country and getting paid in dollars," summarized the young woman.
The question that weighs most on him is not about his own expenses, but about those who do not have access to foreign currency: "For those of us who travel and return to Cuba with some money, it doesn't seem so expensive. But for the people living here, how are they managing to get by?"
The arithmetic posed is devastating: if she spent 5,500 pesos and hardly bought anything, how does someone survive on the minimum wage of 3,200 pesos?
This minimum wage—recently raised from 2,100 to 3,210 pesos by the Cuban regime, effective from July—is equivalent to just 4.65 dollars at the informal exchange rate, which is around 695 pesos per dollar.
The economist Javier Pérez Capdevila calculated that a person needs at least 96,060 pesos per month to cover their basic needs, of which 70,070 correspond only to food: a figure 30 times higher than the new minimum wage.
Official statistics report an annual inflation rate of 15.89% for May 2026, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information, but prices continue to rise well above that figure in informal markets, where independent estimates place the actual inflation rate around 70% year-on-year.
The euro, for its part, reached a historic high of 800 pesos in the informal market on June 21, and independent economists project a decline in Cuba's GDP of up to 15% in 2026.
"Although I do not regret returning to Cuba, I do feel that living here right now is unsustainable," concluded @yuyudecuba, leaving open the question that thousands of Cubans ask themselves every day in front of a market they can no longer afford.
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