Anxious Cubans brace for price hikes, austerity measures

In Cuba, residents worry that new austerity measures will exacerbate an already dire economic situation on the island with high inflation and shortages in basic goods and medicine as Cuba's president said no one will be "abandoned."

HAVANA — At a gas station here in Cuba’s capital, taxi driver Rafael Guiardinú waited patiently in line for hours to fill his tank, worried about a rise in gas prices.

“How much am I supposed to charge a client if they want to go to the airport when the prices are so high?” Guiardinú asked.

“Prices will go up for everything,” he said. “At what price are they going to sell a pound of boniato (sweet potato) if it’s already expensive?”

After weeks of anxiety over a hike in gas prices of as much as 500% that was supposed to take effect Thursday, Cuba’s vice minister of economy announced Wednesday that the new measure would be delayed, citing a cybersecurity incident as the reason.

The expected hike in gas prices are part of an austerity plan announced in late December that caused alarm and drew widespread attention, since it included raising prices on basic services and staples, cutting subsidies and raising taxes on the emerging private sector.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/anxious-cubans-brace-price-hikes-austerity-measures-rcna136627

---