The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal questioned the scope of the business reforms announced by the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel and warned that the new powers granted to state-owned enterprises cannot operate without relative prices that reflect actual costs or macroeconomic stability.
Monreal published the analysis on his X account, after Díaz-Canel summoned over fifty executives from state-owned companies to the Higher School of State and Government Leaders to present the new autonomies of the package of 176 economic transformations approved in June 2026.
The leader stated that the state-owned enterprise has a historic opportunity to "prove that it can be agile, efficient, and competitive," although he warned that "this autonomy is not a blank check."
The announced powers include setting wholesale prices, managing profits, designing salary scales, managing supplies, importing and exporting without intermediaries, and administering accounts in foreign currencies.
"None of this works without real economic calculation. The 'autonomies' announced are primarily microeconomic and sectoral adjustments within a system that continues to operate without relative prices that reflect scarcity and opportunity costs," Monreal warned.
He pointed out that these powers do not, by themselves, create useful signals for the country's development. "At best, companies will optimize what the State allows them, not what the economy needs."
The second aspect of his criticism focuses on the macroeconomic environment. With official inflation soaring from 15.89% in May to 28.5% in September 2026 and the price of the dollar in the informal market rising from 500 Cuban pesos in February to over 900 in November, Monreal warned that any room for maneuver is effectively nullified.
"The salary that the company approves today loses value tomorrow. The wholesale price set today becomes misaligned with actual costs and the informal exchange rate," he noted.
In June, the economist referred to the salarial measure that ties salaries to the financial capacity of each company as "anti-worker," and in August he warned about the lack of a stabilizing framework in the 176 measures.
The regime, for its part, recently reported that 171 out of 176 transformations already have completed legal foundations, supported by 215 regulations, while five measures remain pending.
Monreal concluded his publication with a direct question to the designers of Cuba's economic policy: "How is the relative value of a good or service determined, exactly, in a consistent and non-arbitrary manner, when there is no market of freely formed prices and the national currency systematically loses value?"
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