Central Bank of Cuba denies rumors about monetary unification

Central Bank of Cuba denies rumors about monetary unification

HAVANA, Sep 10 (PL ) The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) today denied the supposed beginning of the monetary unification as of October 1, 2020 in the country, information that for days has given rise to rumours on social networks.In its statement, the BCC clarifies that this information is not true and confirms that at the time that decision is made, it will be promptly communicated to the people through official channels.

Likewise, he reiterated that the application of monetary unification will not affect the cash in the hands of the population, nor the balances of their accounts in banks.

This issue has regained relevance in recent weeks after the authorities insisted on the urgent need for this objective for the monetary, exchange and credit reorganization of the nation, immersed in the execution of a socioeconomic strategy to face the crisis generated by the pandemic of Covid-19.

BCC analysts specified in recent statements that the decision to adopt two legal tender currencies came after the crisis suffered in Cuba in the 1990s when there was a drop in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of almost 35 per cent.

It was then that the Cuban peso (CUP) lost its purchasing power and its functions as a medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account, while facilitating the conditions for a de facto dollarization, manifested in the informal market.

In 2003 and 2004, specialists deepened, the level of economic recovery achieved allowed the start of the withdrawal of the dollar from circulation and was replaced by the CUC (Convertible Peso).

From that moment in the commercialization of products in the country, the two national currencies, the Cuban peso and the convertible coexisted, thus establishing a monetary duality.

In 2011, based on the Guidelines of the VI Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, the unification was oriented as part of the monetary ordering process in the territory.

According to the highest management of the country, this process is considered today a necessary, although not sufficient, condition to reorder and update the national economy.