EspañolVenezuela ended 2017 with four-figure hyperinflation reaching nearly 3,000 percent, according to the financial consultancy Ecoanalítica.
Though President Nicolás Maduro’s regime won’t admit to the inflation problem, the ever-increasing price of the dollar is enough to devalue of the country’s money significantly. According to the DolarToday website, Now, it’s at 111,413.23 bolivars.
The Maduro regime has not published economic data since 2015, and blames the United States and the international financial system for sabotaging the country’s economy.
3 datos macroeconómicos de 2017 que desnudan la tragedia de Venezuela:
Contracción PIB 14,7 %
Inflación 2.735 %
Contracción Importaciones 37 %#PobrePais— Asdrúbal R. Oliveros (@aroliveros) December 30, 2017
The price of the most basic goods in Venezuela cost 13,883,365 bolivars (US $125), which is equivalent to more than 70 minimum wage salaries — equivalent to 177,000 bolivars (US $1.5 ).
Monthly inflation reached 81 percent in December, on top of food and medicine shortages caused by price controls, low production and a lack of foreign exchange for imports.
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“Venezuela produces a mere 30 percent of its demand for food,” Economist José Toro Hardy explained. “There are no dollars with which to pay their debts. They have the highest inflation rate in the world. They are about to default. They are isolated and the regime is losing money.”
The desperation in Venezuela is so bad that many Venezuelans are forced to dig through the garbage in search of food.
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The issues facing Venezuela left its citizens very little to celebrate as the new year began. The government, which had promised to give food to the poorest areas, once again broke its word and led people to protest.
The regime has tried to blame exterior influences on its issues, claiming that imports of a traditional holiday dish called Christmas pork haunch were sabotaged. Though Colombia was one of the countries accused by Maduro of preventing pork imports, the country actually did allow for the shipment of 50 tons of pork to Venezuela.
Though the Venezuelan government did not complete the procedures for the export of Colombian pork, Colombia allowed two trucks with special permits to leave for Venezuela, and allowed an additional two trucks once the corresponding procedures to cross the border had been completed, according to a source in Colombia’s Directorate of National Taxes and Customs.
El gobierno de Maduro ha dejado este 2017, un saldo rojo de muertes, asesinatos, pobreza, inflación que sobrepasa el 2000%, retraso, descomposición social. ¡Venezuela es mucho más! Este 2018 será un año de CAMBIOS. Dios está con nosotros.
— Alfonso Marquina (@DipMarquina) December 31, 2017