CUBA cut prices of some foods at government-run stores Friday, in a move that could help quell grumbling from people left out by market-oriented reforms and upset over inflation and inequality.

    A statement by the Ministry of Finance and Prices, carried by state-run media, cited concern for residents. It said the measure, affecting some goods sold in both hard currency and local peso stores, was also in response to lower international commodity prices and the need to strengthen the peso.

    The decision to lower prices came just days after a congress of the ruling Communist Party disappointed some Cubans with a message that measures to reform the economy and bring in a younger leadership would move slowly.

    In another sign of responsiveness, the government Friday also relaxed rules on Cubans traveling by sea.

    The new food rules will make some items more accessible to more Cubans, reducing some prices at hard currency stores by around 20 percent, including for chicken products, hamburger meat and cooking oil. At peso stores, rice and chickpeas will become cheaper.

    Local residents welcomed the measure but said it was not nearly enough.

    “It is good they reduced prices a little, but this measure does not completely meet the needs of a large segment of the population,” said Migdalia Calderon, a retiree from the education ministry with a pension of 280 pesos a month, equivalent to just under US$12.00.

    The state has a monopoly on imports and the sale of imported goods, which are sold mainly at the hard currency stores, and sets prices. Cuba imports more than 60 percent of the food it consumes.

    Some 70 percent of the island’s labor force of 5 million works for the state, earning an average wage of around 600 pesos per month, or US$25 in the local equivalent currency called the convertible peso (CUC). However, many Cubans also receive hard currency or peso bonuses and remittances from relatives abroad.

    The retail outlets originally had a mark-up of a minimum of 240 percent, ostensibly a tax to help those who cannot afford what are called the “dollar stores.” In 2004 the dollar was replaced by the CUC.(SD-Agencies)