Venezuela breaks negative records in 2017, closes with a hyperinflation
Venezuela will close 2017 with an accumulated inflation higher than 2.735%, according to calculations, in December of this month a monthly inflation of 81%.
The cumulative inflation for 2016 was 525%.
The government and the Central Bank of Venezuela do not publish data on inflation or other economic indicators since 2015, so private consultants such as Ecoanalítica or Econometric are the ones that measure these phenomena, of which Parliament also offers calculations.
According to data from these sources, Venezuela technically entered hyperinflation weeks ago, when it exceeded the threshold of 50% of monthly inflation.
In a report presented to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, required to be able to market bonds in that country and published in December by this US institution, the Chávez government figures the fall of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during 2016 by 16, 5%, and admits an accumulated inflation of 274.4% for that year.
Venezuela is the only country in the world that will close 2017 with annual inflation of four figures.
The causes of hyperinflation are the uncontrolled injection of money into the system and the fall in the production of goods, leading to an imbalance between the abundance of money and the scarcity of supply of products.
Since coming to power in 1999, Chavez governments have raised the minimum wage more than 40 times, while thousands of companies were nationalized or closed their doors.
Only in the week that goes from December 15 to 22, the Central Bank increased the monetary base by 24.15%.
The Venezuelan government speaks of inflation induced by the United States, the international financial system, the opposition and some local businessmen and merchants whom it accuses of speculation.
In this line has been pronounced the Spanish economist Alfredo Serrano, director of the Latin American Strategic Center of Geopolitics (Celag), which denounced an economic crime by the international financial system and the United States, which would have contributed to the serious crisis that Venezuela is going through.