Businesspeople, private and State, made the resolution to try and lower the price of the US dollar after participating in a recent forum in Holguin, Cuba.
HAVANA TIMES – At least 14 entrepreneurs, owners of SMEs (small private businesses) in the province of Holguín, have agreed to close ranks with the aim of lowering the price of the dollar artificially, assuming, like the regime, that it is possible. The agreement, reached at the beginning of this month, has an uncertain future amid the rise in the value of currencies against the Cuban peso. “In the Foremp (Business Forum) the issue that was most talked about was precisely the cost of the dollar that is practically becoming priceless,” the owner of a private business — who participated between April 30 and May 2 in the second edition of this event, which took place at the Brisas Guardalavaca Hotel in Holguín told 14ymedio.
The meeting was attended not only by owners of private businesses but also by representatives of State and academic companies, such as economist Juan Triana Cordoví. Among the more than 180 participants, the greatest concern was the depreciation of the Cuban peso, which, they complain, forces them to need more and more national currency to acquire dollars, indispensable for the import of products and raw materials.
“There we met several entrepreneurs from Manzanillo, Granma, who came together to stop the price of the dollar and not buy it at the prices that El Toque publishes, and they have managed to lower it two or three pesos. It seems little, but it’s something,” the businessman tells this newspaper. “Several of us who were there in Holguín decided to do the same, because if things continue as they are now, we will have to close our businesses.”
Without the physical availability of dollars in the Cadeca (State exchange houses), the owners of small businesses must acquire the currency in the informal networks, where the exchange rate responds to the law of supply and demand and is very far from the official one (24 pesos per dollar). The U.S. currency is essential for them to buy products and raw materials abroad. “In my case, I have a store that sells food, cleanin