Cubans want fridges .... Cuba's government needs foreign currency.

The solution: a dozen government-run stores now opening in Havana, where consumers can buy white goods -- if they pay in dollars.

Fridges, freezers, air conditioners, to car parts and electric motorcycles -- all on offer.

And cheaper, it's claimed, than if you were paying in local currency.

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LOCAL RESIDENT, MANUEL, SAYING:

"This benefits Cubans that can't travel because they can buy products cheaper. Getting freely exchangeable currency is a whole other issue, you know, but that's the idea: that you don't pay too much for products."

Customers need a dollar-denominated bank card to pay.

But -- with plans for a total of 77 such stores -- it means the government will have more foreign currency to pay for imports.

Cuba is dependent on goods brought in from outside.

And, amid an implosion in ally Venezuela's economy and tighter US sanctions, its own inefficient state-run economy has been going through a liquidity crisis.

Creating the shortages in everything from fuel and food to medicines that have plagued Cuba this year.