Venezuela Inflation Soars Toward 30% as Maduro Cuts Dollar Sales

[Bacchus4.0]

Print QUEUEQ..Venezuelan consumer prices soared the most in three years last month as President Nicolas Maduro’s government reduced dollar sales to importers and the central bank’s scarcity index reached the highest on record.

Prices rose 4.3 percent from March, the central bank said today, the most since April 2010 and faster than the 3 percent median estimate of nine economists in a Bloomberg survey. The annual inflation rate reached 29.4 percent, the highest since August 2010.

Venezuela’s government introduced a complementary currency system this year, after a February devaluation, that auctioned $200 million on March 27. The system, known as Sicad, has not auctioned any foreign currency since. Finance Minister Nelson Merentes said May 2 that 85 percent of the country’s economic problems would be solved “soon.” Fewer dollars for importers make it harder to buy goods abroad, exacerbating shortages.

The scarcity index, which measures the amount of goods that are out of stock on the market, rose to 21.3 percent last month, the highest since the central bank started tracking the measure in April 2009, according to the central bank report. Food prices climbed 6.4 percent in April, the central bank said.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-09/venezuela-inflation-soars-toward-30-as-maduro-cuts-dollar-sales.html


Solution to Ven food availability and rising costs

[kona808]

1. I thought Venezuela had nationalized their oil industry under Chavez

and that their economic problems had been mitigated.

What happened, and where did all the oil money go?

[Bacchus4.0]

3. oil is the ONLY think keeping them afloat

The money went into the pockets of Chavez and his cronies. The attempts toward marxism have been an abject failure.

[Flatulo]

4. The moves towards Marxism have been successful.

Marxism is the only economic system that can lay waste to an entire country's productive output in a few short years. It creates shortages where there was once plenty.

It is an extremely fair system, though. Everyone is equally miserable.

The Venezuelan people sold their souls for straight teeth and the promise that someone else would pay for everything.

[joshcryer]

7. I consider it cronyism more than anything.

Though I would agree Marxism has a tendency toward cronyism more so than capitalism. For when you are aspiring to "help the people" you must hide your mistakes, while if you're aspiring to make a profit, you look for others mistakes, and use that to your advantage.

[joshcryer]

6. It was already nationalized before Chavez.

The problem is that upper management ignored OPEC quotas so it was being sold under market rates.

[clarice]

2. Socialism at work. nt

[Marksman_91]

5. It's not really socialism. That's just the guise they give it so the humble folk will vote for them

[clarice]

8. +1 nt

[Bacchus4.0]

9. yep n/t

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