Cuba's cash-strapped government has announced fuel prices will rise by more than 500% from February 1, part of a series of economic measures aimed at reducing the deficit, AFP reported.
The price of a liter of regular gasoline will rise from 25 pesos (20 US cents) to 132 pesos, and the price of premium gasoline will jump from 30 to 156 pesos, Finance and Prices Minister Vladimir Regeiro said on state television.
Authorities also said tourists in the landlocked island nation would pay for fuel in foreign currency.
Cuba's government, which subsidizes almost all essential goods and services, announced in late December a series of measures aimed at reducing the deficit at a time of severe economic crisis throughout the country.
According to official estimates, the Cuban economy has contracted by two percent in 2023, and inflation has reached 30 percent.
Late last month, Economy Minister Alejandro Gil admitted the government could no longer sell fuel at "subsidized" prices because the communist-run country is short of foreign currency and still subject to the punitive decades-old US embargo.
"The country cannot sustain the fuel price, which is the cheapest in the world compared to prices in other countries," Gill said.
Cuban gasoline is "very cheap, but if we compare it to wages in the country, gasoline is very expensive," economist Everleny Perez told AFP, adding that the new price structure will affect "the whole society."
The government also announced a 25% increase in electricity prices for large consumers in residential areas, as well as an increase in natural gas costs.
It also said the Central Bank is exploring a potential new exchange rate against the dollar. Since 2021, the peso has been devalued twice.
The island of 11 million people is experiencing its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the 1990s, due to the effects of the pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions in recent years and structural weakness. /BGNES
