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He
was less impressed with the cost of fuel, he said, which had
jumped fivefold overnight as the government made good on the
first of a series of price hikes it says are necessary to shore
up the communist-run country's collapsed economy.
"For me personally, this means I'll have to save more and drive
less," Collado told Reuters in an interview from the window of
his small gray Kia.
Like many in Cuba, the Havana resident and civil engineer said
he understood the need for the price rises.
"Gasoline in Cuba was the cheapest in the world. ... We were
giving it away," he said. "But an increase (in the fuel price)
should be accompanied by corresponding increase in salaries."
Until Friday, Cuba's fuel was indeed among the cheapest in the
world, according to online database GlobalPetrolPrices.com, with
a liter of "Special" (94 octane) gasoline selling for 30 pesos,
or less than 10 cents, at the current black market exchange
rate.
Under the new pricing scheme, a single 40-liter (11-gallon) tank
of fuel will cost 6,240 pesos, or about $20 at the black market
exchange rate, well over the average monthly state salary in
2023 of 4,856 pesos, or $15.66.
Officials say the fuel price hikes - which include selling some
gasoline in dollars - would help Cuba purchase more fuel to stem
long-running blackouts and fuel shortages on the crisis-racked
Caribbean island.
Cuba in late December announced the hike in the price of
gasoline, as well as targeted increases in the price of public
transport, electricity and cooking gas, in a bid to narrow a
ballooning fiscal deficit. Critics say the policies are
inflationary and ill-timed.
Officials said they had decided to limit the fuel price rises on
March 1 to the retail sector and would continue to subsidize
public services such as transportation to soften the blow on
consumers.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; additional reporting by Alien
Fernandez and Carlos Carrillo; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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