The "informal market"

Cuba’s Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas (ONE) published a report this month on current prices in the “informal market.” It’s available for download on the front page of the ONE website.

The report’s definition of the informal market encompasses the sale of goods and services from non-state sources, which includes quite a mix of sources: legal sales at the farmers markets, legal sales of goods and services by licensed entrepreneurs, plus black-market sales by unlicensed entrepreneurs, and sales of goods that are pilfered from state sources or legally obtained from state sources and then resold.

The report includes month-by-month national data from February 2007 to February 2008, and data from the provinces that compare January 2008 and February 2008 prices. Prices were relatively stable with the exception of powdered milk, which jumped about 30 percent in price between January and February 2008.

The most interesting thing about the report may be that it was published at all. If ONE continues to publish these data series, it will give us a benchmark to measure changes in the agriculture sector, where efforts are under way to boost output.