Venezuela's Currency Continues It's Collapse As The All-Powerful 'Constituent Assembly' Starts To Rewrite The Constitution

Stacks of banknotes are piled on a desk in a bakery in Caracas. Once one of the world's strongest currencies, the bolivar has been reduced to nuisance status. Photo: Bloomberg

France 24: Venezuela's currency crumbles at dizzying speed

CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuela's money, the bolivar, is sinking faster and faster under an intensifying political and economic crisis that has left citizens destitute and increasingly desperate.

Its depreciation accelerated this week, after a disputed vote electing an all-powerful "Constituent Assembly" filled with allies of President Nicolas Maduro, which the opposition and dozens of countries have called illegitimate.

On Thursday alone, the bolivar slumped nearly 15 percent on the black market, to be worth 17,000 to one US dollar.

In a year, the currency has lost 94 percent.

The decline has been dizzying -- yet largely ignored by the government, which uses an official rate fixed weekly that is currently 2,870 to the dollar.

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WNU Editor: Expect the situation to get worse when this starts .... All-powerful Venezuelan assembly to open amid protests (Washington Post/AP).