HAVANA– Communist-run Cuba yesterday imposed sweeping price controls on all state and private businesses as it battles a deepening economic crisis and mounting U.S. sanctions. Resolutions published in the official gazette banned all retail and wholesale price increases except for products imported and distributed by the state where already-set profit margins cannot be increased.

“In effect they have suspended what there is of a market,” a Cuban economist said, asking not to be identified due to restrictions on talking to foreign journalists.

While state-run companies dominate the economy, reforms in recent years have led to a growing private sector of cooperatives, farmers, small businesses and self-employed individuals who, for example, work in the skilled trades or drive taxis, and in general operate on a market basis. Resolution 302 of the Finances and Prices Ministry lists all actors in what is called the non-state sector, saying that they “cannot increase current prices and tariffs of products and services.”(Reuters)…[+]