Cuba to suspend cash deposits in dollars from June 21

Cuba announced this Thursday the temporary suspension of bank deposits of dollars in cash effective June 21, a measure he attributed to the financial and trade embargo of the United States, and which comes fully economic crisis on the island with a strong devaluation of the local currency.

Banks of the country -state- They will only accept US dollar cash deposits until June 20the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) reported in a TV space dedicated exclusively to announcing the new measure.

It comes at a time when the value of the dollar on the black market has risen uncontrollably to exceed 70 Cuban pesos (CUP) this week, almost triple the official price of 1 to 24.

The Minister-President of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), Marta Sabina Wilson, assured that the measure it is temporary and he clarified that Cuban banks will continue to accept other cash notes such as euros, pounds sterling, Canadian dollars or Japanese yen.

He also clarified that people will be able to legally own US banknotes and any other foreign currency because “we do not penalize possession of dollars», He clarified.

The BCC clarified that Cuban bank accounts in US dollars (euphemistically denominated “freely convertible currency”Or MLC) remain fully operational, so that withdrawals can be made, transfers from abroad and deposits in currencies other than US dollars can be made.

The central bank explained that it was forced to make this decision “facing the obstacles imposed by the American economic blockade so that the national banking system can deposit cash in US dollars that is collected in the country abroad ”.

Cuba applied at the beginning of this year a process of monetary and exchange unification which meant the exit from circulation of the convertible peso (CUC) – parity with the dollar – and which left the only official currency of the country Cuban Peso (CUP), with a single official conversion rate of 24 pesos per dollar.

The governing body of the Cuban banking system denounced that for the island it is increasingly difficult to find international banking or financial institutions willing to receive, convert, process or process cash in US currency because of the extraterritorial effects of the US embargo.

He denounced that the US economic sanctions have hardened in the past four years -During the administration of former President Donald Trump- and currently they remain in effect.

He stressed that the suspension of dollar cash deposits is a decision “essential“Due to the limitations of the embargo which have limited up to”unusual extremes“The island’s possibilities of depositing American banknotes collected on national territory in international banks.

Absent since 2004, the dollar returned to the Cuban economy in 2019, when the sale of home appliances and auto parts was announced in MLC, to be expanded the following year to much of the food and basic products sold in the state’s store network.

This has skyrocketed the value of the dollar and other denominations on the black market., as many Cubans are forced to acquire foreign currency in order to purchase their food, toiletries, and other items that are generally impossible to acquire with Cuban pesos.

(With information from EFE)

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