Monetary and exchange rate reform in Cuba: Lessons from Vietnam

In 2010 it was confirmed that the Cuban economy was beginning a new economic reform, officially labeled an “update of the economic model.” At the end of 2010, the “Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy” (Guidelines), was issued, a text that to some extent explains the content of the reform for the period 2011–2015. 1 The Guidelines have a section on monetary and exchange rate policy that outlines the changes intended for that field. The proposed changes could be grouped into three directions or main goals: (1) currency unification between the Cuban peso and the convertible peso (CUC), (2) improving the strategy for monetary policy, and (3) fi nancial transformations. This paper seeks to evaluate these three objectives given Cuba’s current situation following the monetary and exchange rate policy transformations of the 1990s and subsequent setbacks, while using Vietnam as a case for comparison.