SIX DECADES OF FINANCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN CUBA (1959–2024)

Between Political Imperatives, Structural Crises, and Unfinished Reforms

Abstract

This article analyzes the evolution of the Cuban financial system from the republican origins to 2024, articulating a historical-institutional perspective that goes beyond a chronological description to offer a critical assessment of its performance. The central thesis argues that the successive reconfigurations of the system have responded primarily to political and ideological imperatives rather than to criteria of economic efficiency, which has structurally conditioned its limited capacity to mobilize domestic savings, allocate credit productively, and contribute to sustained economic development. The analysis is structured in six stages: the nationalization of the financial system and the implementation of the single-bank model (1959–1975); its consolidation under Soviet influence and integration into the COMECON (1976–1989); the emergency financial opening during the Special Period, with the partial dollarization of 1993 (1990–2000); recentralization and formal monetary duality (2001–2010); and the unfinished reforms that culminated in the 2021 Tarea Ordenamiento and its inflationary consequences (2011–2024). The study identifies five recurring structural patterns: the reactive nature of reform, the lack of comprehensiveness in transformation plans, the use of external financing as a substitute for internal reform, the subordination of the financial system to central planning, and the systematic accumulation of monetary imbalances. It concludes that overcoming the current crisis requires institutional comprehensiveness and macroeconomic stability as prerequisites for any viable financial reform.