Havana Consulting Group

The Havana Consulting Group (HCG) is a Miami-based independent research and advisory firm specialising in the Cuban economy, diaspora remittances, and business environment. Founded by Cuban-American economists, HCG produces research used by US government agencies, think tanks, international financial institutions, and journalists. Its estimates on remittance flows, tourism statistics, and FDI are among the most-cited independent datasets on the Cuban economy, given the limited transparency of Cuban government statistical releases.

HCG analysts were cited by CiberCuba on 7 April 2026 attributing CADECA's decision to open cash dollar remittance windows to the regime's need to recapture flows running 70 per cent below the 2019 baseline. By the 18-day mark (22-24 April), neither HCG, CADECA, nor Fincimex had published any formal-channel volume data on the test's performance. The absence of published data from HCG — the primary independent benchmarking organisation for Cuba remittances — is significant: it suggests either that data is not yet available or that the results are too poor to publish without further context. The Informal USD/CUP rate moved in the wrong direction over the 18-day period (510 to 530), consistent with the test failing to shift demand from informal to formal channels.