If you buy 1 kg of rice, you should have 440 bills … Venezuela's inflation is 1 million percent – Chosun.com

Entry 2018.07.28 07:00

The price of 1 kg of rice imported from Brazil to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is 220,000 bolivars. To buy five cups of rice, you must carry 440 pieces of 500 bolivar, the smallest of Venezuelan banknotes. That would be worth 2,000 won.

A package of four rolls of toilet paper that can only be purchased for more than a week costs about 170,000 bolivars (about 1,600 won). If you buy two packages, you spend 86% of Venezuela's minimum wage of 390,000 bolivars. If you want to buy 1 kg of cheese, you have to pay a monthly salary.

I'm glad I can live. Most supermarket shelves are empty, making access to food and staples such as sugar, coffee and spaghetti noodles difficult. There is not enough milk to feed the baby. I can not cook because I do not get electricity even if I only get rice. The president receives 3 million barrels of salary, but with that money, he can not buy canned cans. Venezuela is the worst economic reality of the "oil wealth" that once lived in South America.

Venezuela's inflation last year was 4300%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects it will reach 1 million by the end of this year.

Alejandro Werner, Director of the Western Hemisphere of the IMF, made this forecast on Monday and compared the price crisis in Venezuela to the situation in Germany in 1923 and Zimbabwe in the 2000s. World War I, hyperinflation had occurred in Germany and had to carry a lot of money in the wagon to buy a loaf of bread.

The IMF warned that if the Venezuelan government continues to make money to fill the budget deficit, the monetary value will be worse than scrap. In fact, Bolivar is appreciated as a craft rather than money. A couple in Caracas moved to Colombia, then folded the Bolivar currency and started selling it as a bag or belt.

As a result of hyperinflation, Venezuela unexpectedly turns into a "society without money". To withdraw the bills, you must entrust them to foreign countries. Small neighborhood shops also have their own handsets and receive debit cards or smartphones for their merchandise. The Venezuelan economy has practically failed.

The Venezuelan economy failed. Venezuela has the largest reserves of crude oil in the world. Crude oil accounts for a quarter of GDP, the main source of state revenue, hit hard by oil prices for several years. According to data from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), crude oil production in Venezuela in June this year was 1.5 million barrels a day, the lowest in 30 years.

But the biggest problem is the Nicholas Maduro regime, which is populating populist politics. Mr. Maduro succeeded Chavez's left-wing populist policy after he succeeded the regime as a successor to former US president Hugo Chavez.

When the Maduro government ignores market principles, foreign companies and capital transit through Venezuela. Venezuela, which escapes to foreign countries, has jumped because it has been unable to tolerate hunger in food shortages. The Colombian government said that Venezuela, which left Venezuela and remained in Colombia, exceeded 870,000 people. Some estimates show that 10% of the 31 million people in Venezuela are abroad.