CUBA: First Exchange Houses Open in Havana

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Oct 19 1995 (IPS) - An unobtrusive sign sports the announcement that from now on, Havana residents will no longer have to resort to the underground market to change dollars – they can now visit the first exchange houses to open in Cuba in over 30 years.

The exchange houses were established by CADECA S.A., legally a corporation of private capital, near the free farmers markets that function according to the laws of supply and demand, and will operate in the same hours.

They began to function on Saturday, with neither warning from authorities nor press coverage.

“As soon as the rumour spread, illegal buyers began to offer more pesos per dollar,” Mariana Rivero, who lives near one of the agricultural markets, told IPS.

The exchange houses are operating with the same rates as the informal market, where the peso has held steady at around 25 against the dollar since September.

According to insiders at the National Bank, that institution will be able to regulate the exchange rate to compete with the black market. But that will not be reflected by the official rate, which will keep the peso on par with the dollar.

While bank employees refuse to provide information, and experts say they are unfamiliar with the details, some 10 exchange houses could now be operating throughout the island, of a projected total of 200.

The move is part of a broad reform of the financial sector, which according to experts will put an end to the state’s monopoly over the banking system.

After being completely centralised for decades, Cuba’s financial system is undergoing a process of modernisation, readjustment and structural reforms that aim to help it adapt to the current opening of the economy.

The exchange houses are part of a wave of reforms designed to transform the Cuban economy and pull the country out of a crisis that has already lasted five years.

In September, the Cuban parliament approved a Foreign Investment Law that will further open the economy to foreign capital.

And the government has moved to the terrain of structural reforms with a job rationalisation programme, which will affect some 500,000 people.

While that step will mark the end of paternalism, it will also mean job insecurity and an end to full employment for the first time in decades. Thousands of Cubans will have to accept government relocation offers or turn to self-employment.

While details of the reform of the labour market are not generally commented on in public, the official daily ‘Trabajadores’ reported in May that the process is moving forward in fishing and light industry.

Termed by experts “a 180 degree shift,” the reform aims to eliminate the large-scale, outdated industrial structures inherited from the Soviet Union, and encourage the emergence of small and ZCZC OSL085 DAP243 LLLL AA AB ARJ XJ WX DD QN SERVENG .DEVAMVD LA IF CUBA: First Exchange Houses Open in Havana

By Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Oct 19

CUBA: First Exchange Houses Open in Havana

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Oct 19 1995 (IPS) - An unobtrusive sign sports the announcement that from now on, Havana residents will no longer have to resort to the underground market to change dollars – they can now visit the first exchange houses to open in Cuba in over 30 years.
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