Venezuelans eat less and less protein, those who can replace it with eggs, canned foods and vegetables. Projections estimate inflation between 530% and 550% by the end of this year, 2025. If there are no corrective measures or a political change, the rider of hyperinflation could gallop again in 2026. Payment in bolivars is once again preferred by Venezuelans.
Venezuela Time
«Christmas that returns, tradition of the year
some go happy, others go crying.
There are those who have everything, everything they want
and your Christmases are always merry
There are others who are very poor, who have nothing.
“They are the ones who prefer that it never arrive.”
Christmas coming back
Billo s Caracas Boys
Two years ago Nairobi had the habit of buying products such as corn flour, pasta and rice in bulk each month, now it purchases at most ten of these items.
Likewise, he bought between eight or nine kilos of meat, today he buys an average of five. Likewise, he used to take four large chickens from the supermarket freezer; currently, he has to settle for a five-kilo bag of thighs.
«There has been a drastic decrease in food purchases. We have lowered our protein consumption and now we buy more canned food: tuna and sardines, as well as eggs, which are the most accessible,” said the Caracas housewife.
In 2023, Nairobi was buying up to three types of cheese, now only hard for grating. Two kinds of ham, nowadays buy the cheapest one. «Nowadays, we buy less and spend more. Two years ago we made a decent market with 100 dollars, today $100 is not enough for you at all.
Carmen had left it, but now, after a long time, she returned to her notebook where she writes down and compares prices from markets, supermarkets and supplies. «I buy all the proteins in one place where it is cheaper and the rest in several places. “I look for offers, I no longer go to a single place like before, for example, vegetables at street fairs,” said the elderly woman.
Public employee Gabriela* assured that a month and a half ago, where she does her shopping, the price of meat went from $9 per kilogram to $18. “That’s why I stopped buying it and now I eat chicken, pork and fish.”
Although it has dropped and has seen it at $12 per kilo, “Gaby” chose to remove meat from her daily diet. The same thing happened with the apple, which, according to the 50-year-old, represents a hit to the pocketbook.
Since she no longer consumes the food that comes in the CLAP bag, Gabriela exchanges it at a municipal market for half a carton of eggs. «Before I bought six apples for $5, now the same amount is worth $10. The problem is that money in bolivars does not work, food prices go up in dollars and everyone sets the exchange rate to what they want.
Not even for cheese
Last November, #LaHoradeVenezuela made an evaluation of some products from the basic food basket of the Cendas-FVM (Venezuelan Federation of Teachers) in municipal markets and supermarkets. This monitoring showed an average of 51 dollars for the acquisition of 12 products (rice, flour, coffee, pasta, sugar, salt, oil, a kilo of hard white cheese, a kilo of meat, a kilo of chicken, beans and 12 eggs).
According to monitoring, the most considerable increase was seen in white cheese and meat.
The average kilogram of cheese in supermarkets and markets went from $7.30 on November 1 to $11.55 on the last day of the same month, for an increase of 58.21%.
For its part, the average kilo of meat, which was $10.67 at the beginning of the penultimate month of the year, ended up at $12.62 (18.27% more expensive).
For the people consulted, this increase in the red meat segment keeps in suspense the family certainty of preparing hallacas, the typical Venezuelan dish every Christmas.
“$51 for those twelve products is exaggeratedly expensive for an economy like Venezuela’s,” said economist and former deputy of the National Assembly, José Guerra.
According to Guerra, to be able to access just these dozen products, almost 100 minimum wages are required, which since March 2022 has stagnated at 130 bolivars. “According to Conindustria, the average salary of a Venezuelan worker is 250 dollars per month, this means that a part of the basket costs 25% of the salary.”
No traffic light jugglers
Like someone throwing balls or throwing fiery daggers into the air in front of a swarm of cars in Caracas, Venezuelans must juggle to find the best return on the dollars or bolivars they are paid to go to the market.
Italo Atencio, president of the National Association of Supermarkets and Related Products, highlighted what he had already warned since September: more than 95% of transactions in supermarkets were made in bolivars and that “payments will continue to be in national currency.”
“Before, when the gap was not so wide, I paid in dollars, but now I change to bolivars with someone who offers a good rate and that way I don’t lose,” said Nairobi, justifying the reasons why she prefers establishments that accept bolivars at the official rate and not informal stalls where other rates are usually handled.
Carmen does the same as Nairobi, but now she only changes what is strictly necessary. “Previously it happened to me that I changed 100 dollars, so I ended up buying things that I didn’t need at the moment, now I use one of these cryptoasset applications and only spend what I need.”
Unlike Nairobi and Carmen, Gabriela* does not receive a salary in US currency.
«It is an issue because I receive a bonus in dollars, but they deposit it in bolivars in exchange for the official rate of the BCV (Central Bank of Venezuela) and I have to run out to spend them or exchange them at the parallel rate because otherwise it becomes salt and water, a total that I always lose,” said Gabriela, who also explained that she frequently uses the Cashea credit platform to reduce expenses.
Like Buzz Lightyear…to infinity and beyond
According to a report prepared by economist José Guerra, in terms of prices, the trend in 2025 has been towards the acceleration of inflation. When the inflation rate exceeded 20% month-on-month in October 2024, the Central Bank of Venezuela stopped publishing inflation figures.
According to the economist, taking into account the devaluation of tradable goods and the increase in services, the inflation rate would be between 530% and 550% by the end of 2025, with a tendency to increase.
Guerra stated that everything seems to indicate that the BCV will maintain the current rate of depreciation of the bolivar against the US currency (average of Bs. 2 or 0.46% per day).
In its report, it noted that the degree of freedom of the BCV to reduce the daily adjustment of the exchange rate is insufficient in a context of high demand for dollars and excessive circulation of bolivars. «What this reflects is great disorder and anarchy. People usually pay in bolivars if it is at the BCV rate and tend to hide the dollars. That’s why there will always be more bolivars.”
The report shows that the gap between the official exchange rate and the parallel exchange rate has fluctuated between 25% and 50% in 2025.
And while the economists analyze, Carmen, Nairobi and Gabriela, each in their own reality, look for ways to put food on the table.
*Name changed at the request of the interviewee
*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 is being published taking into consideration the threats and limits that have consequently been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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