Cuban deputy PM warns of impact of international price rises on local economy

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 11 (ACN) Alejandro Gil Fernandez, Cuban deputy prime minister and head of economy and planning, warned today in Havana about the unfavorable impact that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could have on nations like Cuba as a result of the increase in the prices of a group of food and essential products that it imports.

Summarizing the working meeting of the ministry of finance and prices (MFP), in which the results of 2021 were assessed and the projections for 2022 were drawn, Gil Fernandez pointed out how in the world market the value of a barrel of oil and a ton of oil, wheat and soybean flours, among others, including ship freight, have shot up substantially.

But the international price, inflationary, which seems to have no end and a tendency to greater complications, we have to face it without lamentations and concentrating on socialist, administrative and fair solutions, he added.

The deputy PM emphasized that despite the current scenario becoming even more complex, the Revolution will continue protecting the population, especially the vulnerable people and communities, with a view to help them to get out of this state.

He pointed out that another challenge of the MFP is to achieve a rational and transparent price system, in which the decentralization of prices does not lead to free will nor to neglect the necessary control, even more so in a country with economic restrictions and a market of supply and demand that we must recognize while trying to channel it according to the interests of society.

Gil Fernandez insisted on the differentiated attention to the vulnerable, for which he recalled the purpose of moving from subsidizing products to subsidizing these people, not an easy task that must be assumed by global agencies.

The head of Cuban economy stressed that the budget cannot assume expenses of companies and budgeted entities with inflated workforces or underemployment of their labor force, although he clarified that not all of those 500 entities with losses in 2021 were due to inefficiencies in their plans, but because the prices of their goods or services were below the raw materials or inputs acquired.

For her part, minister of finance and prices, Meisi Bolaños explained that in 2021 it was necessary to execute a budget reconverted to the scales of the new economic and financial scenario, without precedents and experiences, and to apply extraordinary measures in view of the contraction of income as a consequence of the impact of COVID-19 and the tightened US blockade, which led to the disbursement of some 17 billion pesos for expenditures.

She recalled that in turn, the price decisions approved for the Ordering Task were implemented, with the necessary corrections and adjustments, and work was done on the execution of the measures envisaged in the Economic and Social Strategy and the strengthening of the Accounting Department.