Venezuela: the land of 500% inflation

[Zorro]

Venezuela is spiraling down fast while its biggest problems are skyrocketing up.

Inflation in Venezuela is projected to increase 481% this year and by a staggering 1,642% next year, according to new estimates released Tuesday by the International Monetary Fund.

"Venezuela is on the precipice of hyper inflation," says Kathryn Rooney Vera, research director at BullTick Capital Markets in Miami.

The IMF also forecasts that Venezuela -- which rarely publishes its own economic data -- will have an unemployment rate of 17% this year and nearly 21% next year.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/12/news/economy/venezuela-imf-economy/index.html?section=money_news_economy

[Bacchus4.0]

1. What? That's not what Weisbrot says.

Weisbrot lies and says everyone has access to the dollars in the SICADII system. And, wrongly, predicts inflation is being held down.


The current exchange rate is about 1100Bs to the dollar

Will the new exchange rate system work? So far, it seems to have tamed the black market. There was a huge drop in the black-market rate after the announcement of the new system—it fell from 87.91 BsF/dollar on February 19 to a low of 57.06 on March 21. It has bounced around since then and at this moment (May 30, 2014) is at 70.86. We can expect fluctuations in the black market due to speculation, as participants try to figure out how that new system is going to affect the price of the parallel dollar. But it does seem like the upward trend of the black-market dollar over the past year-and-a-half has been arrested. Most importantly, the SICAD II exchange rate has thus far been stable, settling at a rate of about 49 BsF per dollar.

So far, the SICAD II system is off to a good start and may succeed in drawing currency exchanges away from the black market, and putting a circuit-breaker into the inflation-depreciation cycle that we have seen over the last year or so. It is still too early to tell whether the new exchange rate system will succeed in stabilizing the currency and enabling the government to bring down inflation. And additional measures will be needed to eliminate the shortages. But the measures taken so far have shown that it is possible to stabilize the economy, and that it is not headed toward an escalating crisis as many have maintained for years. As the economically disruptive protests wind down, it will become easier to stabilize the economy and resolve the most important problems.
http://www.culanth.org/fieldsights/641-inflation-shortages-and-the-exchange-rate-in-venezuela

[Zorro]

2. But Weisbrot is a highly respected economist

Highly respected by DU's internet scholars, that is. Because Chavez/Maduro/Bolivarian Revolution good, Obama/Hillary/USA bad.

So Weisbrot must be right. Q.E.D.