Delcy Rodríguez announced the income of 300 million dollars from the sale of oil that will go to the exchange market through the Central Bank of Venezuela and the national bank to stabilize the market
Long faces, small bags with essentials and the continuous lament because “everything is expensive.” Venezuela intervened in the exchange market to reduce the gap with the black dollar with the almost impossible objective of lowering high prices.
The first intervention in months was for 300 million dollars. They come from oil sold at market price by the United States, which assumed a leading role in the marketing of crude oil after the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3.
Only the expectation of the injection reduced the exchange gap that reached 100% just a few days ago.
Prices in Venezuela are set in dollars, but many pay in bolivars to take advantage of the difference with the black market rate.
And traders adjusted prices and explained that a fall will be progressive, although always tied to the behavior of the dollar in the long term.
«Nothing has changed, everything is the same. You go to buy wherever you go to buy and everything stays the same,” lamented Dixory Seijas, a 40-year-old informal seller. “I buy the most essential things, only what is most needed, because money is not enough,” he told AFP.
«Prices entered a terrible expansion process. This is especially noticeable in meat products,” said Rafael Labrador, a 73-year-old lawyer.
Stabilize the dollar
Venezuela decriminalized the use of the dollar and lifted controls to combat the hyperinflation and shortages it suffered between 2017 and 2022.
Since then, the Maduro administration, under the economic leadership of then-vice president Delcy Rodríguez, began to inject petrodollars recurrently to control the market.
Now, as head of the national Executive, Rodríguez once again turns to the dollar to try to stabilize the economy.
When announcing the entry of the first 300 million on Tuesday, Rodríguez said that they are intended to “protect (the population) from the negative impact of fluctuations in the exchange market.”
Analysts believe the injection is a good step to stabilize the economy, but it will require more foreign currency consistently.
The director of the consulting firm Ecoanalítico, Alejandro Grisanti, believes that if there are no announcements of a constant flow of foreign currency and an offer at true market prices, the country will “again have a significant depreciation in the currency.”
It also considers that exchange rate control cannot be used as an anti-inflationary policy. “It should be through fiscal policy that prices can be reduced,” he told AFP.
Without purchasing power
The parallel dollar surpassed 900 bolivars shortly after the United States attack on January 3. In the previous weeks, US forces prevented the departure of ships with Venezuelan oil, subject to sanctions since 2019.
But after the first sale in coordination with the United States, the parallel exchange rate dropped to about 460 bolivars per dollar.
The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, demanded that businesses adjust prices.
“They have to do it, it is their obligation, because sometimes they raise the price and, when the dollar goes down, they act stupid,” he said on Wednesday the 21st when talking about the reform of the Hydrocarbons Law, which is expected to facilitate business with the United States and increase the flow of dollars.
Inflation and the devaluation of the currency shattered the precarious average income of Venezuelans years ago. The minimum wage is less than a dollar, the same as a pensioner receives.
The government provides bonuses at its discretion to complement.
Union organizations demanded on Monday that oil resources be used to improve the income of Venezuelans and reinforce pensions. “Every month the pensioner has to decide what to die of, whether from hunger or illness,” union leader Josefina Guerra complained to AFP.
With information from AFP
*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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