The state considers the informal exchange rate, widely tracked via the independent news outlet El Toque, as illegal, but it has been unable to shut it down. The state officially pegs the local currency at 120 pesos to the dollar, but it has few to exchange.
While authorities mainly blame tougher U.S. sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic for the crisis, critics point to the slow pace of market-oriented reforms.A weak peso, the currency in which most Cubans are paid, undercuts the buying power of already paltry salaries that rarely top 5,000 pesos monthly, or $20 at the current exchange. The local cost of many goods imported in dollars also skyrockets as the peso plunges.
"The dollar keeps going up," said Havana primary school teacher Sonia Nunez. "We have to kill ourselves getting money to buy three dollars to buy a little bit of detergent, a little bit of tomato puree, so the increase in the dollar is enormous, it has been something horrible."