Official Note on the Process of Monetary Unification in Cuba

Official Note on the Process of Monetary Unification in CubaHavana, Cuba, Oct 23.- Granma newspaper published an official note on the monetary unification and exchange process that will take place in Cuba, which we reproduce in full below.

The Guideline No. 55 of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution, approved by the Sixth Congress of the PCC states: "We will move toward monetary unification, taking into account labor productivity and effectiveness of distributive and redistributive mechanisms. Due to its complexity, this process will require careful preparation and execution, both in the objective and subjective aspects".

In compliance with this Guideline, the Council of Ministers agreed to enforce the implementation of a schedule of measures that will lead to monetary and exchange rate unification.

As reported , monetary and exchange rate unification is not a measure that resolves on its own all the current economic problems, but its implementation is essential to ensure the restoration of the value of the Cuban peso and its functions as money, as a unit of account, means of payment and store of value .

This, coupled with the implementation of other policies aimed at updating the economic model, will facilitate the management of the economic environment and consequently the correct measurement of its results.

Cuba will start the process of monetary unification for legal persons and natural persons.

The main changes in this first stage will occur in the field of legal persons, in order to create the conditions for increased efficiency, better measurement of economic events and encouraging the sectors that produce goods and services for export and import substitution.

Cuba will start by a period of preparation of conditions that allow the development of proposed legal rules, the design of the changes in the computer systems responsible for the accounting records and adjustments in accounting standards. It will be an essential step for training also people who should undertake the execution of the various transformations.

Cuban President Raul Castro Ruz in his closing speech at the first regular session of the Eighth Legislature of the National Assembly of People's Power , last July , spoke about the process of implementation of the Guidelines as follows: " I ??wish to reiterate on this front of strategic significance we have continue moving forward and we can already observe the first encouraging results , although it is true that there is a long and complicated way to update our economic and social model , ensuring the majority of the population support this process , which excludes the use of shock therapies and leaving millions of people homelessness as the adjustment policies implemented in recent years in several countries in the rich Europe have done" .

As has been the practice followed during the years of the Cuban Revolution, no action taken in the monetary field is to harm those who legitimately earn their income in CUC and CUP.

In this sense , the process of monetary unification that respects the principles of trust earned by people who have kept their savings in banks Cuban in CUC, CUP and other international currencies, remains intact and continue to apply the current policy of subsidies at retail prices and people where needed, while the country's economic conditions require it. The CUC and the CUP are Cuban currencies issued by the Central Bank of Cuba and maintain its full support .

From now on they will continue extending the possibility of accepting in stores that sell in CUC, payments made in CUP using debit cards.

Experimentally at selected locations people may make cash payments in CUP for the equivalent calculated at the CADECAs exchange rate of 25 CUP by 1 CUC.

According to the progress of the implementation of the schedule, they will be giving details on the measures that apply at all times, while the entities specialists should be involved in its implementation, along the population.(ACN)