Cuba authorizes variable pricing for fuel sales

The Cuban government, which authorized private fuel imports for the first time in almost 70 years in early February, announced this Tuesday that it will eliminate the fixed price for fuel sales, replacing it with a variable price based on import costs. AFP In a statement published this Tuesday in local media, the Ministry of Finance and Prices emphasizes that Cuban authorities maintained a fixed price for fuel sales for years "as a protection policy against the changes and instabilities inherent in a volatile market," a policy that "cannot be sustained economically under present conditions." In this regard, it announces that as of next Friday, "the selling prices in foreign currency for fuels will be updated, upwards or downwards, according to the real costs of each specific import operation." The Ministry also points out that economic opening has "allowed for multiple actors to be in a position to import and market fuels in foreign currency," suggesting a possible liberalization of these sales. Private fuel imports were authorized on the communist island as part of a package of emergency measures in response to shortages caused by US sanctions. However, private companies, allowed on the island since 2021, were not authorized at the time to market the imported fuel, which was reserved exclusively for their own operations. Washington has maintained an almost total blockade on oil supplies to the island for four months, threatening to sanction countries that sell it fuel, which has practically paralyzed its economy and significantly worsened the economic conditions of its population. Since mid-January, the administration of Donald Trump has only allowed the arrival of one Russian tanker to the island. On May 1, Trump, who does not hide his desire for a change of regime in Cuba, signed an executive order that tightens sanctions and targets foreign companies and banks collaborating with the Cuban government.