Venezuela launched 1 million bolivar banknote worth 52 cents on the dollar

The Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) announced on Friday the incorporation of three new banknotes in the monetary cone, equivalent to 200,000, 500,000 and one million bolivars, which will be the highest denomination, with a value of 52 cents on the dollar, according to the official price.

The new banknotes will begin to circulate “gradually” from next Monday, according to a brief message from the BCV in which they assure that “They complement and optimize the current monetary cone, to meet the demands of the national economy.”

Currently, the highest denomination note is that of 50,000 bolivars, about two cents on the dollar to changeAs a result, the use of Venezuelan paper money has almost completely disappeared in favor of cards.

However, The Venezuelan economy is de facto undergoing transactional dollarization and, for the most part, prices are denominated in US dollars., when stores show it.

The three new money species they will have on their obverse the image of Simón Bolívar, a design almost identical to that of banknotes which are no longer used today.

Those of 200,000 and 500,000 bolivars have the image of the Liberator’s mausoleum, integrated into the national Pantheon, while that of the million shows on its reverse the image commemorating the bicentenary of the battle of Carabobo, decisive in the war of independence.

The last time the monetary cone was widened was in June 2019, when bills of 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 bolivars were incorporated, which then amounted to 1.62; $ 3.25 and $ 8.14, respectively.

In August 2018, at Venezuela began circulating a new monetary cone, after the government of Nicolás Maduro ordered the elimination of five zeros from the national currency, the bolívar, then called bolívar fuerte and he continued to wear the nickname “sovereign,” as a measure with which he sought to cope with the hyperinflation in which the country has been living since November 2017.

In 2008, the then president Hugo Chávez started another currency conversion process which removed three zeros from the currency, with what has been called the strong bolivar. That is to say in the current currency, officially denominated sovereign bolivar, eight zeros were amputated.

New devaluation

In 2020, the Venezuelan economy recorded a cumulative inflation of 3713%, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Finances (OVF). Expectations for the present 2021 are not the best.

At the discretion of the economist José Guerra, the economy will not emerge from the recession without political change and change the actions of the state.

“A totally depressed economy with no engine to grow, because the main engine, which is the oil industry, is off, which drives Venezuela, with exports that are not growing, ”he assured VOA a few months ago, who was also member of Parliament (2015-2020).

With information from EFE

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