Cash, credit or rum: Cuba offers to pay Czech debt in booze

Cuba has come up with a novel way to pay its $276 million debt to the Czech Republic – bottles of its famous rum.

According to the Czech finance ministry, Cuba suggested this unusual option during recent negotiations. Although the Czech Republic has stated that it would rather be paid at least partially in cash, if it were to accept the proposition the country would have enough Cuban rum for more than a century – and what a merry century it might be.

The Czech finance ministry affirmed that the debt could be partially paid in either rum or pharmaceutical drugs, but with Cuban medicine lacking EU certification it seems there may be no other option than to drink up.

Cuba’s debt to the Czech Republic dates back some decades to the Cold War era, when Cuba and then Czechoslovakia formed part of the communist bloc.

Source: BBC News