HAVANA, December 31. /TASS/. The monetary reform in Cuba eliminating circulation of the convertible peso settled a series of complications in the objective assessment of the country’s economic status, Russian trade representative in Cuba Alexander Bogatyr told TASS.

"The presence of two currencies in the country complicated the task of implementing the objective assessment of the economic status and plans for its developments accordingly, because it appeared that two categories of business entities are in place, functioning in different economic realities. Some of them had greater dependence on international markets; dependence of the others was smaller. Some of them have nominally higher production costs and manufacturing costs, while the others have them smaller. The monetary reform implemented in Cuba in January 2021 closed out this ‘currency duality’," the trade representative said.

Significantly increased inflation is not related to the currency reform directly, Bogatyr said. "As regards inflation growth in Cuba, I would elect not to associate this phenomenon directly with currency unification. Inflation is caused to a greater extent by the capability of maintaining the demand and supply balance on the domestic market, the amount of currency in circulation and its coverage by goods. The factor of imported inflation is also in place," he added.