MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuban Convertible Peso revalued 8%

Cuba made effective Saturday April 9 the 8% devaluation of the US dollar in Cuban territory after having abolished the circulation of the green back replacing it by the Cuban convertible peso or better known as CUC.

Last March Fidel Castro announced the end of the one to one parity of the Cuban peso-US dollar effective April 9, which had been effective since 1984 and its replacement by the new convertible currency plus the 8% devaluation of the US greenback.

The measure is extensive to other foreign currencies circulating in the island such as the Euro, Canadian dollar, Swiss frank and Japanese yen mostly from the tourism industry.

An estimated one billion US dollars are remitted annually to Cubans by relatives overseas. The US dollars are physically delivered to the beneficiaries.

The (8%) revaluation of the CUC toppled with the withdrawal from circulation in Cuba of US dollars with a 10% exchange tax, means that in the official financial system for each US dollar the beneficiary will receive 0,84 CUC.

Cuba' Central Bank president said that the revaluation of the new Cuban currency, CUC, is "part of a very coherent strategy with the purpose of giving the Cuban peso a greater purchasing power".

However financial analysts indicated that the 8% is actually a tax on foreign currency particularly since tourism is rapidly becoming the main foreign currency earner of the country.