Cuba to scrap two-currency system Tuesday Oct 22,2013

Cuba is to scrap its two-currency system in the latest financial reform rolled out by President Raul Castro, official media report on Tuesday Oct 22,2013

Since 1994 Cuba has had two currencies -

• Cuba's convertible peso (CUC) is pegged to the US dollar and
• the local peso (CUP) is valued at a fraction of the greenback's value

Most wages and local goods are priced in CUP while the dollar-pegged CUC is used in the tourism industry, foreign trade and upscale eateries and stores carrying imported goods.

Neither are legal tender outside Cuba.

The two-currency system was supposed to protect Cuba's fragile economy but angered locals paid in the much lower-value CUP and denied access to goods only available for those with convertible pesos.

The Cuban Govt said it had approved a plan to gradually eliminate the dual monetary system that has been in place for the last two decades, part of reforms aimed at improving the Soviet-style economy's performance