Inflation in Cuba, the urgency of caring for the vulnerable

Solving the problem of inflation in Cuba has not only to do with short-term measures, that is why it is necessary today to make emerging decisions to soften its impact on low-income citizens, economist José Luis Rodríguez considers.

The National Economics Award 2019 told Prensa Latina that solving the problem takes time because it is about solving structural issues, but it is also related to what is happening in the world, a global inflation with very clear causes.

In fact, in 2020, as a consequence of Covid-19, a good part of the world economy was paralyzed, which produced a rise in prices at international level and this logically affected the country’s purchasing power, the expert points out.

This is one of the reasons that brought about the decrease in supply, an essential issue, since the deficit of products in the face of a high demand is a main cause of inflation worldwide.

Although other factors affect the island, it is undoubtedly a priority issue for the economy in 2022, that is why it is important to implement an anti-inflationary program focused on solving the causes that generate it and not only attacking the consequences, the advisor of the World Economy Research Center recommends.

Rodriguez, who was recently recognized with the National Award of Social and Humanistic Sciences 2021, referred that one of the actions of a possible anti-inflationary program could be to mitigate the negative impact of the economic overhaul the government carried out since January 2021.

Among other measures, it included a process that unified the currency and the exchange rate, with a devaluation of the Cuban peso, an issue that was designed to be compensated with increases in salaries and pensions in the face of rising prices.