HAVANA — The Cuban government has reduced provisions distributed through its ration book, leaving state-run bodegas in central Havana with little to sell in April. José Luis Amate López, who works at a bodega serving 5,000 clients, said he had not had a customer in nearly two weeks aside from a kitten.

The only items available for sale in his bodega in April were rice, sugar, and split chickpeas. The shop is now an empty room with dusty old posters detailing prices and amounts of nearly two dozen goods no longer available, including yogurt, pasta, and bars of soap. Two industrial freezers, once packed with meat and chicken, now serve only to keep Amate López's water bottle cold.

"No Cuban can truly survive on the products from the ration book anymore," Amate López said. The government recently decided to mark the 65th birthday by awarding sardines, a bar of soap, and a package of toilet paper, but he said he did not have any of those items available.

Fidel Castro established the ration book, known as la libreta, in the early 1960s, offering heavily subsidized goods ranging from milk to fish and cigarettes. The ration book shrank during the 1990s Special Period when Soviet aid plummeted, a time during which Cubans lost an average of 5% to 25% of their body weight, according to a study published in a medical journal.

Ana Enamorado, 68, a Havana resident whose salary and pension total about 8,000 Cuban pesos ($16) a month, was only able to buy split chickpeas and 2 pounds of sugar at her assigned bodega in April. "There's hardly anything in the ration book," Enamorado said. "We're practically living off air."

She said her meals now consist of rice, seasoned ground meat, and cornmeal, or sometimes nothing at all, a contrast with past meals of pork, lamb, fricassee, fried plantain slices, and red beans and rice. "Now we have to cut back, have one meal a day and live on memories," Enamorado said.

Cuba imports up to 80% of the food it consumes, including goods offered at state stores. Basic goods are increasingly sold in U.S. dollars, and a carton of 30 eggs costs roughly 3,000 Cuban pesos, or about $125. Two pounds of meat hash cost nearly 900 Cuban pesos ($37), and one pound of cornmeal costs roughly 200 Cuban pesos ($8).

William LeoGrande, a professor at American University, said the Cuban government bungled the 2021 merging of two Cuban currencies and that resulting inflation has persisted because the state spends far more money than it takes in. "They just don't have the money to do it anymore," he said.

LeoGrande said the bulk of state funds is spent on health, education, social welfare, and food imports, and that the government's investment in tourism is far higher than demand, which has plummeted. "Any major cuts in state spending are going to have a profound social impact, which is why they haven't done it," he said.