A single currency is not a cure-all

The first phase of the changeover in Cuba’s currency unit — from convertible peso to national peso — began this month in a Santiago de Cuba store, Sierra Maestra Digital reported Sunday (June 22).

The Vista Alegre department store, member of the TRD-Caribe chain, which until June 9 accepted only foreign currency and convertible pesos (CUCs), began accepting national pesos (CUPs) at the official rate of 25 CUPs per 1 CUC.

According to the Guidelines of Cuba’s Economic and Social Policy, the difference in value between the CUC and the CUP will be gradually reduced until the currencies are equal. Then, the CUC will be eliminated and the CUP will become the official unit of currency.

Yusmira Morell Nicle, a TRD-Caribe executive, said that “there has been a good level of acceptance by the customers, manifested in the considerable increase in sales and revenue.”

Store merchandise may be bought partly with CUCs, partly with CUPs and even partly with credit or debit cards, Morell Nicle said, but refunds will always be issued in CUCs.

The store’s sales manager, Yadira González Díaz, told Sierra Maestra that the sales clerks were given special training to deal with the changeover and the cash registers were reprogrammed accordingly.

“So far, we’ve had no problems,” she said. Signs everywhere in the store show the rates of change and the payment options.

Morell Nicle said that five other TRD-Caribe stores will gradually adopt the new system. The TRD-Caribe chain has stores all over the country. TRD is the acronym for Tiendas Recaudadoras de Divisas, or Hard-currency-collecting Stores, i.e. stores that normally deal only in foreign currency and CUCs.

Pavel Vidal, a Cuban economist who teaches at the Xaverian University in Cali, Colombia, told Progreso Weekly on March 11 that “from what I see, the CUC’s disappearance will be quite swift, for businesses this year, for the population I don’t know when.”

He also said that “there’s got to be a process whereby the two currencies coexist as a means of savings, to make bank deposits.” To read the entire interview, click here.

Monetary unification “will not, by itself, solve all the problems of the economy,” said Marino Murillo Jorge, chief executor of the economic reforms, during a meeting Saturday (June 21) of the Council of Ministers, of which he is the vice president.

Nevertheless, the changeover “is an indispensable part of a process that includes the implementation of other policies designed to increase efficiency and productivity in the workplace, as well as the improvement of the different mechanisms that distribute the wealth created,” the daily Granma quoted him as saying.

The agreed-upon timetable for the changeover is being followed, Murillo said. One of the most important tasks so far has been the training given to commercial institutions on how to deal with the complex process, he added.

Other Progreso Weekly articles on monetary unification can be accessed here>> and here>>.