With the presence of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba; The President of Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez reported that the monetary and exchange rate regulation process will begin on January 1, with a rate exchange of 24 Cuban pesos for one dollar.
“The corresponding elaborations and analysis have been concluded, as well as all the necessary legal norms, so it is considered that the conditions are created to announce the start of the regulation process as of January 1,” said the president in a radio and television appearance.
As announced, this process of monetary and exchange regulation implies a new exchange rate, the cessation of the circulation of the CUC currency, the elimination of excessive subsidies and undue gratuities, and a modification in the distribution of income.
Díaz-Canel recalled that in the last two Party congresses the fundamental concepts that should guide the work in this regard were specified, in particular in the VII Congress.
“In the Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development in its chapter I establishes, among other aspects, the redesign of the monetary, exchange, tax, price, salary and other income system of citizens,” he said. .
For its part, Guideline number 40 of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2016-2021, proposes: Concluding the monetary and exchange unification, as a decisive process in the monetary order of the country.
The president argued that in the new economic and social strategy to boost the economy approved this year, “the monetary order is ratified as one of the fundamental components that is of transcendental importance and has a transversal impact on the entire economy.”
Since last October, information on aspects of the so-called ordering task has been offered at the Round Table and at the last session of the National Assembly of People’s Power. At the same time, there has been a wide dissemination on the subject in the press.
In turn, he added, extensive training has been carried out for those who must participate in this task, “which has been very useful as a feedback element in its final phase of preparation.”
Díaz-Canel reiterated the significance and importance of this task, “which will put the country in better conditions to carry out the transformations required by updating our economic and social model on the basis of guaranteeing all Cubans greater equal opportunities, rights and social justice, which will be possible not through egalitarianism, but by promoting interest and motivation for work ”.
“It has already been stated that the ordering task does not by itself constitute the magic solution to all the problems present in our economy. However, it will favor the creation of the necessary conditions to advance in a more solid way, ”he stressed.
Due to its comprehensive characteristics, he continued, it is one of the most complex tasks that the country has faced in the economic order, complexity that is increased by the effects of the intensified blockade, the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the international economic crisis and the impacts they have caused to the national economy.
“The task is not without risks, one of the main ones is if there is an inflation higher than designed, exacerbated by the current supply deficit,” said the president and assured that abusive and speculative prices will not be allowed, since they will face socially with containment measures and severe penalties for noncompliants.
For the successful development of this task, the president said that everyone’s effort and cooperation is required in order to achieve the expected results. “As always, we will be receptive to the criteria of the population to attend to any problem that may arise in its execution.”
He reiterated that the conditions are created to ensure that no one will be left helpless. “In socialist Cuba, shock therapies will never be used against the people and that the transformations that we must undertake in the economic and social model will be carried out by previously forging a consensus in favor of the unity of the nation.”
Díaz-Canel stressed that the monetary system also creates the conditions so that the business system can make the appropriate decisions and fully exercise the powers that have been granted to it, which allows so that the business system can make the right decisions and fully exercise the powers that have been granted, which will allow it to react positively by increasing benefits for its workers and for the whole of society.
(Cubadebate)