In Venezuela, the minimum wage and pensions are 130 bolivars, the national currency, about 0.60 cents per month, according to the most recent exchange rate of the BCV.
This Saturday, November 1, Venezuela marks a year without official and updated inflation figures – which was 4% in October 2024 -, which makes “everyone grope” in terms of their financial planning and leaves Venezuelans “blind” about the direction of the economy, university professor Jesús Palacios told EFE.
Without recent inflation figures issued by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), it is “difficult to negotiate salary increases,” Palacios warned, and companies do not have references to plan their entire financial strategy.
In Venezuela, the minimum wage and pensions are 130 bolivars, the national currency, about 0.60 cents per month, according to the most recent BCV exchange rate. Public employees receive government bonuses of up to $160, but they do not affect their work benefits, which is why several unions demand a living wage.
«Inflation in dollars»
During the hyperinflation of 2017 and 2021, Venezuela de facto adopted the use of the dollar and this currency became the main reference for setting prices throughout the country. Other currencies – such as the euro and, to a lesser extent, the Colombian peso – are also used against inflation and distrust of the bolivar.
However, dollar prices are increasing in Venezuela and people refer to it as “dollar inflation.” Regarding this, Palacios, who is an economist by profession, commented that “prices in dollars have been increasing compared to previous years” and this “has been a phenomenon since 2018, which was very acute until 2023, especially.”
During those years, “there were increases that led to prices multiplying by five or six times what their value was (in dollars) at the end of 2018,” added the economist.
“We are talking about inflation in dollars above 20% in the last twelve months,” Palacios said based on independent estimates.
“Overfitting”
Palacios explained that low salaries, “inflation in dollars” and the absence of inflationary figures generate a “lack of clarity and coordination between economic agents (individuals, families, companies, etc.).”
He also added that the sum of the variables mentioned lead to a “loss of purchasing power in consumers,” as well as a “reduction in (profit) margins in businesses or a drop in sales due to excessive price adjustments.”
«For businesses, businesses, for the producer, it is very complex to calculate prices if you do not have inflation estimates, as well as to negotiate with suppliers. “It takes away a reference measure,” the professor stressed.
«Repressive overflow»
In June of this year, at least five economists were detained, several of them released, according to the Legal Enforcement coordinator of the NGO Provea, Marino Alvarado, who then warned of a “repressive overflow” and assured that the Venezuelan authorities do not “want the country to be informed about the economic situation.”
Along the same lines, the Venezuelan Finance Observatory (OVF), an entity independent of the BCV that measured inflation, stopped publishing its figures after denouncing “persecution” and “harassment” against people dedicated to the “dissemination of statistical information relevant to understanding the Venezuelan economy.”
The BCV has not published inflation figures since November 2024, when it released the data corresponding to October.
This coincided with the widening of an exchange gap between the price of the dollar set by the issuing entity and that of the black market – well above the official one – a situation that, according to economists, remains to this day due to the limited availability of foreign currency in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the Maduro administration assured last July that Venezuela has had more than seventeen consecutive quarters of economic growth, although it has not reported inflation figures.
With information from the EFE agency
*Journalism in Venezuela is carried out in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments in place to punish the word, especially the laws “against hate”, “against fascism” and “against the blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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