Without MLC stores, Cuban economic situation would be worse, deputy PM asserts

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 8 (ACN) Alejandro Gil Fernandez, Cuban deputy prime minister, stressed in Havana that if the freely convertible currency (MLC its Spanish acronym) stores had not existed, the country's economic situation would be even more complex, as well as the sales of goods and services in Cuban pesos to the population, given the high shortage of the commercial network.

When interviewed by the Cuban News Agency on such a sensitive issue, of which the enemies of the Revolution misrepresent, Gil Fernandez, who is also the head of the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP) recalled that these premises were created in 2019 when the U.S. blockade against the Caribbean island was tightened.

He specified that the measure was aimed at preventing the exit of the currency from the country by natural persons, then supplying the domestic market, to capture it and use it for the development of the national industry and to maintain a stable level of offers in pesos; but nobody anticipated that an epidemic would make the situation even more complex.

On October 2021, before the National Assembly of People's Power, I explained that more than 300 million dollars had been used from the sales in MLC to supply merchandise to the trade network in national currency, so we should ask ourselves what would be the scenario if those stores had not been set up, despite the limitations generated.

He said that the scenario would also have been different if the dollars that were captured in the first months of the measure could have been used, because due to the blockade that has just completed 60 years of existence, the reception of U.S. currency in Cuban banks had to be stopped as of July 20, 2021.

Nor can we forget the impact of the world logistics crisis as a result of COVID-19: more than 6,000 containers destined for Cuba, with products to supply stores in Cuban pesos and freely convertible currencies, are paralyzed in international ports because there are problems with the shipping companies, with the containers and freight costs have increased, he stressed.

Gil Fernandez highlighted the transitory nature of the decision referred to the stores in MLC, whose objective is being fulfilled -he said-, while its period of time will depend on the recovery of the economy and that we can provide the Cuban peso with a real purchasing capacity.
We know that the population cannot fully satisfy its needs in those MLC establishments, and that there is a group of products that we have to offer in this currency, but if tomorrow we put them in national currency, they will last 15 days and then there will be neither in foreign currency nor in peso, the Cuban minister noted.

The head of the MEP considered that although many do not see it this way, it is a measure of social justice because it allows us to redistribute the currency according to the supply of the commercial network in peso; therefore, we have to work on expanding the offers in national currency and we are going in this direction with the approval of the MSMEs, the elimination of barriers to state enterprises and with the 63 measures to strengthen the agricultural sector.

All this will make it possible for the economy to recover and for the peso to gain more space, he continued.

The way to face inflation is precisely associated with the increase of offers by the State, in national currency, which cannot be achieved from one day to the next because this has been restricted by the shortage of inputs, mainly in the agricultural and industrial activity, due to the lack of foreign currency and this problem due to the blockade, the COVID-19 and the measures of the US government aimed at preventing remittances from entering Cuba, he emphasized.
Let's remember that between 2020 and September 2021 we lost 13% of the Gross Domestic Product, a truly harsh impact, Fernandez Gil concluded.