The economist Pedro Monreal dissected an article published by the official portal Cubadebate regarding prices in Cuba, describing it as "mediocre."
"The only redeeming aspect is the caption, which barely mentions supply and demand. The rest is just empty words," the expert stated.
The text criticized by Monreal, published without identifying its author in the "Thinking about Law" section of the state media, is titled "Am I being overcharged? What the Law says about prices," and it addresses the price crisis affecting the Island from a strictly legal perspective, citing a series of decrees and resolutions instead of analyzing the actual economic causes of inflation.
In his critique published on X, Monreal contrasted the bureaucratic approach of the article with a fundamental definition that the official text avoids.
"The price expresses the exchange relationship between a good or service and a monetary unit. It is an economic relationship, not a fiction imposed by decree. It is formed by the interaction between supply and demand, conditioned by production costs, competition, consumer value perception, and external factors such as inflation or regulations," it outlines.
The economist was even more direct in pointing out the political backdrop of the article: "The long list of regulations mentioned in the article reflects a party and government bureaucracy increasingly at a loss about how to correct its own mistakes."
The text from Cubadebate includes references to Decree 24 of 2020 regarding the powers for price approval, to Decree 156 of 2026 from the Council of Ministers, to Resolution 16/2026 from the Ministry of Domestic Trade - which regulates the so-called "Neighborhood Market" - and to Resolutions 160 and 161 of 2026 from the Ministry of Finance and Prices, which establish exemptions and discounts on the Sales Tax for certain commercial circuits.
For Monreal, this accumulation of regulations explains nothing; it is the excuse of a bureaucracy that confuses the legal framework with economic reality.
And he concluded his analysis with a statement that sums up the central contradiction of the Cuban model: "Markets always end up blowing a little horn at bureaucratic prices, reminding the official that neither the Official Gazette nor their Excel spreadsheets are in charge, but reality is."
In June, the regime announced a package of 176 economic measures, which included the end of centralized price controls, arguing that the previous caps had led to shortages and diversions to the black market.
Days later, the Ministry of Finance and Prices formally eliminated the maximum retail price caps for five basic imported products: chopped chicken, edible oils -except for olive oil-, powdered milk, pasta, and sausages.
But in August, the provincial authorities of Villa Clara, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguín, Matanzas, and Pinar del Río have reintroduced price controls for basic food items, unilaterally and without coordination.
"The supposed more liberal approach of the 176 measures faded in less than two months," criticized Monreal, who summed up the chaos with a stark phrase on his Facebook profile: "176 measures and one single achievement: to show that they learned nothing."
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