Cuba on Friday will lower the price of some basic household goods at thousands of state-run hard currency stores, employees of two retail outlets in Havana said on Thursday. The move appears aimed at quieting grumbling among Cubans who have not benefited from market-oriented reforms and are upset over rising food prices and inequality.
According to a document described as a leaked Ministry of Finances and Prices list that circulated on the internet, the goods include such items as cooking oil, chicken, hamburger meat and soup, and price cuts vary from 10 percent to 30 percent. The government did not immediately confirm the information. An employee at a Havana outlet, who asked not to be identified, would only state they included "basic products people need such as toothpaste, detergent and cooking oil."
The measure comes less than a week after President Raul Castro, speaking to a Communist Party Congress, admitted market-oriented reforms begun five years ago have yet to trickle down to many residents who remained hard pressed to make ends meet. In communist-run Cuba, the state has a monopoly on imports and the sale of imported goods, which are sold at the hard currency stores. The Congress was held largely in secret and produced no announcement of new economic measures, frustrating residents who complain the reforms are moving too slowly. Miriam Rodriguez, a cashier at a Havana supermarket, confirmed rumours circulating in Havana since Wednesday.