Prices at Cuba's dollar-only stores to increase by 10 percent to 30 percent

HAVANA (AP) _ Cubans could soon be paying between 10 and 30 percent more for staples such as cooking oil, pasta and cheese after the country's dollar-only stores were ordered to mark up their prices,

Friday, May 21st 2004, 6:11 am

By: News On 6

HAVANA (AP) _ Cubans could soon be paying between 10 and 30 percent more for staples such as cooking oil, pasta and cheese after the country's dollar-only stores were ordered to mark up their prices, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

The communist government abruptly closed the stores early last week, angered at U.S. moves to tighten the 44-year American embargo against Cuba. Officials have said the stores would reopen with items selling for higher prices, but have not given a date. Gasoline prices will also increase, the government has warned.

Cuban leaders are worried that the shops, which only accept U.S. dollars, are creating social inequality. The elite, with access to greenbacks, can easily buy everyday goods that a doctor cannot on a salary equivalent to $25 a month.

Cubans have free rent and receive free health care, university education and other services. Some receive meals at work.

But wages average the equivalent of about $20 a month and monthly rations of nearly free food have dwindled in recent years.

Cubans who can get dollars that filter through the economy from tourism and family remittances from abroad turn to hard-currency shops for food products and other goods that are difficult to obtain for pesos.

Cuba was forced to implement liberal reforms in the early 1990s to cope with the loss of Soviet aid and trade. Possession of dollars was legalized in 1993 to draw hard currency from growing tourism and family purchases at the state stores.

The government has steadily offered more and more goods in U.S. currency while the Cuban ration book of items available in pesos has dwindled.

The document, issued by the Domestic Trade Ministry and directed to managers of dollar-only stores, provides a detailed list of price increases.

It is dated May 17, and attributed to Jacinto Angulo Pardo, an official at the ministry.

The prices of staple goods _ such as baby food, soup, cereal, pasta, meat and cooking oil _ will increase by 10 percent, according to the document.

Other foods, like dried fruit, olives and condiments, will increase by 15 percent, as will the prices of film and office supplies.

Laundry detergent will cost between 12 percent and 20 percent more, and hand soap will cost between 20 cents and 80 cents, up from 15 cents and 70 cents.

Prices of clothing, shoes, electrical goods and furniture will increase between 10 percent and 15 percent. The cost of building materials will go up 10 percent, as will the price of personal hygiene items like deodorant, shampoo and shaving cream.

Among the steepest increases will be imposed on leather goods, which will rise up to 20 percent; imported cigarettes, up 20 percent; alcohol, up 25 percent; and local handicrafts and souvenirs, which will rise by 30 percent.

A similar document was circulated two years ago. But dollar-only stores were not shut down as they were this year, and the cost of some items, like cooking oil, were reduced after customers complained.

The U.S. proposals aim to reduce hard currency on the island by limiting how often Cuban-Americans can visit relatives, decreasing how much they can spend, and prohibiting money transfers to Cuban officials and Communist Party members.

Fidel Castro's government has denounced the proposals, and officials organized a huge protest march last week in Havana.

Russia on Thursday called the U.S. measures a counterproductive step reminiscent of the Cold War.

``In today's rapidly globalizing world, any attempts to isolate any individual country are, in our view, counterproductive,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in Moscow.