For nobody is a secret that Venezuela is going through the worst economic crisis in history and that every day thanks to inflation, exchange rate policy, falling national productivity, falling oil prices and price control, Devaluation of the currency is aggravated.The BBC Mundo daily published Thursday, December 8, six curious data that reveal the little value that the "strong" Bolivars have.
These are:
1-. US $ 1 = 4,100 Bs?
That is the exchange value according to the rate on the black market, which the government considers illegal. In the last three weeks, the dollar surpassed the 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 bolívares barriers and no one knows how far it will go. (It is possible that while reading this, that value of 4,100 is out of date).
2-. 8 vs. 700
I recently went to Colombia. I went to the airport cashier and got the equivalent of US $ 100. I received about 300,000 pesos. What surprised me, accustomed to carrying large bundles of banknotes in Venezuela, was that this amount was barely 8 papers. I put them in my pants pocket with no problems.
Doing something like that in Venezuela would now be impossible. Taking into account the official change, it would have needed for that amount about 700 notes.
If I had made the equivalent of the change in the black market there would have been 4,000 papers! I would have needed a whole suitcase. The reason is that the ticket of highest denomination in Venezuela is 100 bolivars, while in Colombia I received bills of 50,000 pesos and there are up to 100,000.
3-. Bs. 20,000, the new ticket
The bill of 100 bolivars will no longer be the highest denomination in Venezuela as of December 15.
That problem may soon have a solution. As of December 15, six new tickets will progressively enter into force, which will make the one with the highest denomination current, the one of 100, be surpassed.
4-. 10,000 Bs, limit on ATMs
10 thousand bolivars is the daily maximum limit of bolivars that can be withdrawn at a public bank teller from March 1, 2017. There have also been restrictions on private banks in recent days.
The need for many banknotes means that bank tellers will soon be out of paper, which leads to long queues, which add up to what has to be done to get food at regulated prices.
5-. One million points of sale
One million is the number of electronic points of sale for the payment with cards that are needed in Venezuela, according to the National Association of Users and Consumers, to be able to do without much of the cash, so scarce currently in the country.
Now, according to the Central Bank of Venezuela, there are 431,536 points for debit cards.
6-. 500% Inflation
The ticket of 2 bolivars is no longer valuable, so it is common to see them on the ground, just like the coins of 1 bolivar.
This is due to the inflation calculated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2016. It is the highest in the world and by 2017 could continue to rise.
With information from 800 News