The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) will announce this Wednesday the issuance of two new denominations of bills: 10,000 and 20,000 Cuban pesos, as reported by the state media Cubadebate.
The measure was presented this Tuesday by the president of the BCC, Juana Lilia Delgado Portal, during the television program "Mesa Redonda."
Delgado Portal justified the issuance as a necessity to "adjust the existing denominations to the economic situation, particularly to price conditions and the needs of monetary circulation."
The 10,000 pesos bill features the image of Haydée Santamaría, while the 20,000 pesos bill showcases the figure of Vilma Espín.
Both denominations are added to the monetary cone along with the 2,000 and 5,000 peso bills, which began to circulate on April 1 of this year gradually, although for months Cubans reported that they could barely find them on the streets.
"With these new 10,000 and 20,000 Cuban peso bills, the modification we announced in our monetary system is now complete," stated Delgado Portal.
The context that forces the regime to issue banknotes in increasingly higher denominations is that of an economy in free fall.
The official inflation reached 20.70% year-on-year in July, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), with food being the main factor driving the increase.
The dollar was trading in the informal market at around 698 Cuban pesos in the last session, compared to 435 pesos in December 2025.
The prices of basic products illustrate the extent of the devaluation of the national currency: a pound of rice reaches 360 pesos, black beans 450, a dozen eggs 3,000, and a liter of oil exceeds 2,000 pesos, making low denomination bills practically useless for everyday purchases.
The new banknotes are part of a broader package of banking reforms presented at the same "Round Table," which includes the opening of a private exchange house already in operation, changes to expand credit and digital channels, and the regulation of foreign currency bank accounts without prior authorization from the BCC.
The regime also authorized private banking for the first time in decades last June; and the following month, it removed the limit of 5,000 pesos for cash transactions between economic participants.
Delgado Portal stated that the underlying aim of all these transformations is to move towards "a banking and financial system that is secure, modern, agile, and efficient, capable of contributing to economic recovery and responding more quickly and effectively to the needs of its clients," although there is no independent verification that such goals can be achieved in the short term given the structural deterioration of the Cuban economy.
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