News · Economy
For the first time, Cuba's state exchange houses buy dollars above the street: 917 against 915 pesos
State exchange houses in Havana were buying dollars at 917 pesos on Wednesday, above the informal market's 915, according to 14ymedio, which saw queues of people waiting to sell in Centro Habana.
At the state exchange house at Belascoaín and Neptuno, in Centro Habana, dollars were being bought on Wednesday at 917 pesos, a better price than the informal market, which 14ymedio put at 915. It was the only exchange house in the area buying U.S. currency: the one at 23rd and J, in Vedado, was closed supposedly for building work, the Neptuno branch was not buying dollars, and at the Habana Libre hotel the queue was not moving.
The official "floating" rate rose from Monday to Tuesday until it was one peso short of the informal one, when exchange houses were buying dollars at 919, and on Wednesday it overtook it. Banks stayed below: 823 pesos at Banco Popular de Ahorro and Banco de Crédito y Comercio, and 783 at Banco Metropolitano. The euro was selling at exchange houses for 1,025 pesos, 108 above the previous day, and being bought at 999.
The indices tracking the informal market do not agree with each other. CiberCuba, which builds its own from automated analysis of buy-and-sell posts on Telegram and Facebook, closed Wednesday with the dollar at 908 pesos and the euro at 985, and put the Central Bank of Cuba's official rate, known as Segment III, at 813 pesos per dollar and 909 per euro.
The "floating" rate was created in late December 2025, set then at 410 pesos per dollar, after an official campaign against elTOQUE, the outlet that publishes the informal rate based on posts on social networks and classified sites. It is the third rate in force in the country, alongside 24 pesos per dollar for state companies and 120 for individuals, tourism and other hard-currency earners.
Sources: 14ymedio · CiberCuba · Serie Yamacoa: Dólar en el mercado informal (elTOQUE (tasa representativa))
Data updated: 2026-11-12T04:15:00.000Z