Runaway Inflation Hits Venezuela

Venezuela has changed the fixed exchange rate from 4.30 bolivars to the dollar to 6.30 bolivars to the dollar. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters

Venezuela Inflation Hits 49.4 Percent -- Miami Herald

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Annual inflation in Venezuela hit 49.4 percent in September, up from 18 percent a year ago, and basic goods became harder to find, the Central Bank reported Thursday.

The soaring consumer price index gives Venezuela the highest inflation in the hemisphere.

In September alone, inflation spiked 4.4 percent, driven by agricultural goods, transportation, education expenses and a 19.3 percent hike in electricity prices, the government said.

The new figures are ammunition for an opposition that is trying to turn December’s municipal election into a referendum on the six-month administration of President Nicolás Maduro. Inflation is a pocketbook issue as it saps consumers’ purchasing power.

The Central Bank also reported that the “scarcity index,” which measures the availability of basic goods, hit 21.2 percent in September versus 13.6 percent a year ago. The bank said that excluding auto parts, corn oil and sunflower oil, the scarcity index would be at 15.3 percent.

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Update: Venezuela Rumbles -- George H. Wittman, American Spectator

My Comment: Being one who grew up in a command/political economy (the former Soviet Union) .... I know too well that such policies are always a prescription for disaster. For Venezuelans .... my warning/advice to them is that they have seen nothing yet.