Dollar in cash outperforms MLC in informal foreign exchange market in Cuba

HAVANA, Jan. 24th  The dollar in cash exceeded for the first time this Saturday in the informal currency market in Cuba the freely convertible currency (MLC) of the cards enabled by the regime for purchase in special stores, according to the representative rate of the independent media The touch.

Established from the calculation of the median of hundreds of currency trading offer messages in social network groups, the El Toque rate shows that this Saturday, January 22, 94 Cuban pesos are required to buy a US dollar in cash and 93 .2 for an MLC unit.

Before January 1, 2021, the start date of the monetary and exchange “ordering” undertaken by the regime, and even with the aggravations to Cuba’s endemic economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the dollar was equal to the extinct Cuban peso convertible (CUC) and could be purchased in the informal market at the fixed government rate of 25 pesos.

The “ordering” and the shortage of food and basic necessities have triggered inflation in Cuba, to the point that the island’s national currency was the one that depreciated the most in the world during 2021, according to a comparative analysis of the American company Bloomberg, dedicated to financial and stock market advice and analysis.

Weeks ago, the MLC unit was trading in the Cuban informal market for about 10 pesos more than the dollar.