HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba is laying plans to move to a single currency, a reform that many feel is one of the toughest challenges facing President Raul Castro as he tries to kick-start the Communist country’s moribund economy.
For years Cuba has had two currencies — the peso (CUP), in which most wages are paid and local goods priced, and the convertible peso (CUC), used in tourism, foreign trade and some stores carrying imported goods.
The peso, says the government, will remain and the CUC will become history.
Economists applaud the government plan, but secrecy over the all-important details of how and when the change will come is causing some anxiety in the country.
News this month that state companies were ordered to prepare for unification and that personnel are being trained for what the government dubs “Day Zero” has added to the worry.
Cuba is a country where almost the entire economy is in state hands and most prices fixed. Companies must exchange convertible currency and CUCs, pegged to the dollar, with the government at the official exchange rate of one peso, while the CUC has been valued for years at 24 pesos by state-run exchange offices.
Which currency to hold on to, if any, has become the talk of the town.
