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 government, under the economic leadership of the then vice president Delcy Rodríguez, began to inject petrodollars recurrently to control the market.
Now as president, Rodríguez once again turns to the dollar to try to stabilize the economy.
When announcing the entry of the first 300 million on Tuesday, the president 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.
