Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro ordered his economic team to take measures to defend the bolívar following a sharp fall against the dollar this month.
By Yahoo Finance – Ezra Fieser
Dec 10, 2022
In a tweet, Maduro said that facing an attack from the “criminal dollar,” his government would move to protect the official exchange rate ahead of the holidays. He blamed criminal groups in Miami for the bolivar’s slide.
Amid higher demand for greenbacks and more government spending, the bolivar lost about 29% of its value against the dollar this month on the parallel exchange market, according to Monitor Dolar, a website that tracks the rate. On the official exchange market, it’s down about 21% this month to 14 bolivars per dollar. The central bank this week increased the frequency of hard-currency sales to the market.
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on Twitter Saturday that the economic team had outlined a series of actions it will take in the exchange market, but did not elaborate on the measures. The government let the US dollar circulate in 2019, which helped break a bout of hyperinflation and a seven-year recession.
The economy is forecast to grow 7.6% this year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, though it remains a sliver of the size it was before the crisis began.
–With assistance from Fabiola Zerpa.
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