Chicken over 14 million bolivars: hyperinflation in Venezuela in photos
Venezuelan authorities Monday introduced a number of measures aimed at combating the strongest economic crisis that engulfed the country in recent years. One of the main tasks is the fight against hyperinflation, which, according to IMF forecasts, by the end of the year can reach 1 million percent.
Upstairs
One of the key measures introduced by the Venezuelan government, is to modernise the national currency, the Bolivar. The authorities have decided to hold one of the largest denominations in the world history and to put into circulation the so-called sovereign Bolivar.
One sovereign Bolivar is equal to 100 thousand “old” Venezuelan bolívares. Thus, the official exchange rate of the Bolivar was reduced by 96%.
Amid this already tense atmosphere in the Venezuelan society announcement, Maduro gave an additional alarm to the citizens, the media reported that queues in shops of Caracas in the end of the week became much more than usual.
Photographer Agency Reuters Carlos Garcia Rawlins decided to demonstrate disastrous Venezuelan inflation and show how much you need to bring money to buy basic everyday products.
For example, to buy a chicken weighing in at 2.4 kg, you will have to pay approximately 14.6 million bolivars ($2.2 dollars).
The cost of one kilo of meat can go up to 9.5 million bolivars. The minimum wage in the country before the introduction of the new currency was only 3 million bolivars (0.89 USD).
As expected, after the introduction of the new measures, the minimum wage should reach 180 million bolivars (about $ 30).
Many Venezuelans today can hardly afford to buy basic foodstuffs, but also ordinary items of personal hygiene. For example, this bar of soap is 3.5 million bolivars, which is only slightly higher than the minimum wage.
Before the introduction of sovereign Bolivar, the largest currency denomination in the country had a face value of 100 thousand bolivars (a little less than 0.3 per dollar). One of the reasons the denomination of Bolivar was the shortage of paper money in the country.
Now in Venezuela are introduced banknotes in denominations of from 2 to 500 sovereign bolivars. Thus, the cost of the minimum denomination is 200 thousand “old” bolivars.
The problem is that the old system of calculation of bolivars for some time will coexist with the new, which can lead to confusion.
“I don’t understand this reassessment, the authorities have not explained how it works and what will be the salary. How are we going to make purchases, even if haven’t seen the new labels?” — complained to Reuters a resident of the city of San cristóbal Urima Galavis.
Because many people in Venezuela no credit cards, they have to carry huge wads of cash, even if they go out to buy only a stick of butter or margarine.
Monday in Venezuela was declared a holiday. Because of the transition to the new currency all banking transactions on the Internet was suspended for a few hours.
Nicolas Maduro in his Twitter called the foreign exchange reform in the country’s historic economic change and promised to achieve a stable balance in the economy and macroeconomics.