Venezuela's Currency Now Worth So Little Shopkeepers Weigh Vast Piles of Notes Instead of Counting Them - The Independent

11/30/2016
Venezuela'scurrencynowworthsolittleshopkeepersweighvastpilesofnotesinsteadofcountingthem|TheIndependent
News World Americas
Venezuela's currency now worth so little shopkeepers weigh vast

piles of notes instead of counting them
Scenes on the streets ofCaracassaid to bereminiscent of the past century's most chaotic cases of
hyperination
Charlotte England | @charlottengland | 22 hours ago | 148 comments
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The Independent US
Venezuelans exchange bolivars into pesos to purchase Colombian goods Getty
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuelascurrencyhyperinflationoilcrisisdevaluedshopkeepersweighnotesa7443596.html
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Ination in Venezuela is expected to reach 720 per cent this year,

with the largest bolvar bill now worth just ve US cents on the
black market.
Some shopkeepers have reportedly taken to weighing rather than
counting the wads of cash customers hand them, and standardsize wallets have become all but useless in the socialist South
American state. Instead, many people stu huge volumes of cash
into handbags, money belts, or backpacks, in scenes analysts
have said are suggestive of "runaway" ination.
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In 2014, plummeting global oil prices decimated Venezuela's

economy. President Nicols Maduro responded by xing the
ocial exchange rate and ordering banks to print more cash,
which ultimately devalued the currency further, while goods
prices soared.
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Man 'dismembered and eaten by inmates' during Venezuela prison

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The country of 30 million does not publish consumer-price data

on a regular basis, but observers have said scenes on the streets
of the capital, Caracas, are reminiscent of the past century's most
chaotic cases of hyperination.
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Humberto Gonzalez, who runs a delicatessen in the city, said he

uses the same scales to weigh slices of salty white cheese and the
stacks of bolvar notes handed over by his customers .
Its sad, Mr Gonzalez told Bloomberg. At this point, I think
the cheese is worth more.
Jesus Casique, a consulting rm director, told the news site that
although weighing cash was not ubiquitious, it was indicative of a
nancial crisis.
When they start weighing cash, its a sign of runaway ination,
he said. But Venezuelans dont know just how bad it is because
the government refuses to publish gures.
Oil makes up a staggering 95 per cent of Venezuela's exports, and
accounts for a quarter of the country's economy, with oil-related
revenues having historically supplied roughly half the
government budget. This kind of over-reliance on a single export
notoriously depresses all other industries in a country, in a
phenomenon known by economists as "Dutch Disease".
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Venezuelans head to Argentina to escape hardship
When the price of oil on the global market collapsed by twothirds in 2014, Venezuela had little else to fall back on, so a
natural reaction would have been for the bolvar to collapse. But
Mr Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chvez following the
revolutionary leader's death in 2013, instead tried to control the
exchange rate, creating a massive black market for currency.
Figuring out scams to get dollars and then sell them for bolvars
became hugely lucrative business for Venezuelans, setting o a
feedback loop that drove the ination rate higher and higher.
In one of Caracas richer neighbourhoods, the owner of a tiny

kiosk selling newspapers, cigarettes and snacks told the
Washington
Post that every evening he quietly stus a plastic bag
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full of the days earnings, around 100,000 bolvars (about 42) in
notes of 10, 20, 50 and 100 bolvars. Venezuela has one of the
highest crime rates in the world, and he said carrying that much
cash frightens him.
All of Caracas is unsafe, the 42-year-old told the newspaper,
opting not to give his name.
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His best-selling item is cigarettes, he said, which have climbed in

price from 250 bolvars to 2,000 bolvars a pack at least 20
bills.
The shrinking value of the currency has meant that withdrawing
the equivalent of 5 from an ATM produces a stful of more
than 100 bills. Some ATMs now need to be relled every three
hours, because the machines can only hold so much cash. This
means there are often a limited number of functioning ATMs in
Caracas, and long queues to withdraw money.
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Electronic payment is increasingly common in the country

Henkel Garcia, director of the Venezuelan economic think tank
Economtrica, told the Washington Post. The use of online
payments is likely to have soared," he said.
But it is expensive for small businesses to buy and set up creditcard machines.
Mr Maduro, who has largely continued the socialist policies of
his predecessor, blamed the situation on an economic war
waged by his opponents in the business community and in the
United States. But, in a sign his government recognises the
severity of the problem, he recently announced the issue of
larger-denomination bills, expected in January.
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The notes
are reportedly set to start at 500 bolivars and reach
20,000 bolivars, or just over 8.
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Until the notes are issued, however, the Venezuelan people are
poorer than ever, while the country is awash with cash.
Bremmer Rodrigues, who runs a bakery on the outskirts of
Caracas, said his family are at a loss over what to do with their
4/11
11/30/2016
bags of bills. Every day his business takes in hundreds of

thousands of bolvar, he said, which he hides around his oce
until packing them up in boxes to deposit at the bank. He said if
someone looked in on him, he might be mistaken for a drug
dealer.
I feel like Pablo Escobar, the 25-year-old told Bloomberg. Its a
mountain of cash, every day more and more.
More about: | Venezuela | Money | currency | currency crisis |
Ination | Oil
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148 Comments
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yellowbrickroad
16 hours ago
There is likely to be a very poor tax regime too, since taxation

is the key determinant of xing demand for that currency.
The main driver of this ination is too much money chasing
too little output, and so a solution would be to switch the
population over to state infrastructure building while other
forms of private sector business take time to evolve from the
collapsed oil industry.
Reply Share 1 reply
0 likes
ThisIsPeter
16 hours ago
Shear populism. Unfortunately once the rot has set in so

deep, there are no mechanisms for paying for the
cement and re-bar or even replacing the printer
cartridge in the ministry of public works to try to get
such public works o the ground. I was in Argentina
when the Austral went belly up. There are no quick
xes.
Reply Share
+1 likes
ThisIsPeter
16 hours ago
Brexiteers please note. The exchange rate of your currency

does matter!
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ThomasPaine2
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+4 likes
Daily Edition
Christmas Appeal
21 hours ago
If the world market in oil had rocketed, Venezuela would be

one of the richest nations on the planet. Saying that, Maduro
was wrong to peg the currency to anything. A oating
currency would force VZ to diversify its economy and
concentrate on domestic production of foodstus - something
that actually feeds people.
6/11
11/30/2016
Reply Share 1 reply
+1 likes
cryptic_Zeny
21 hours ago
chavez (not maduro) pegged the currency more than a

decade ago ... their unwillingness to take it down is
whats dumb
Reply Share
+3 likes
roblun
21 hours ago
Socialist paradise , beloved of the Indy , Guardian , Mirror,

BBC . LOL LOL LOL .
Reply Share 1 reply
-2 likes
Vladimir Ilyitch Puddleduck
21 hours ago
And Castro revering Corbyn

Reply Share
0 likes
disgusted_of_tunbridge_well
22 hours ago
Venezuela, a ne example of Communism in action.

Yes, we have the EU founded by a card carrying Communist,
Spinelli, building a new USSR and Independent readers think
the EU is wonderful...
Look what Communism did to Russia and its satellite states.
Look what the EU has done to Greece and Club Med...
A pay rise is coming on in Brussels (in austerity Europe). An
extra 9,000 for Juncker this year. I'm sure he's worth it.
Reply Share 1 reply
webtroll1986
0 likes
18 hours ago
This comment: a ne example of stereotyping socialism

with petty bourgeois nationalist populism and ignorance
on class struggle history. Look the growing rate of a real
socialist power till the 1930 before the bureaucratisation
(Stalinism) of the state. Meanwhile French and USA
economy failed up to 40% there was some states like
Japan - they pushed 40% their economy through the
militarisation in about 5 years. But nothing to compare
with the Soviet Union 250%. They had many problems
with the dictatorship, but your comment is
just...ignorance. read a book dude;)
Reply Share
Tellermate
+4 likes
23 hours ago
Weighing cash to count it isn't as ludicrous as it sounds. Many

of the best cash counters on the market use count-by-weight
technology to accurately count large batches of coins and
notes.
It was a technology rst invented in Newport, UK by a
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calledNews
Tellermate,
is still used
by banks
shares
retailers across the UK/US
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Weighing the cash is a surprisingly accurate way to count it.

Although of course I doubt that many of the above were
actually utilizing this technology, and are perhaps instead
resorting to crude measures...
Reply Share 1 reply
+1 likes
7/11
11/30/2016
22 hours ago
You haven't seen Venezuelan notes... Some of the old

ones wont ever weigh the same as more modern ones..
Reply Share
+1 likes
EFC in the veins
23 hours ago
Quote from the article above....."In 2014, plummeting global oil

prices decimated Venezuela's economy.".........so sexy Nicola,
she of SNP blind ambition to take Scotland out of the
Union........be careful, be very careful because this could
happen to an independent Scotland. You have been warned.
Reply Share 4 replies
+3 likes
RightLeft
23 hours ago
...be careful, be very careful because this could happen

to a post brexit UK. You have been warned.
+2 likes
EFC in the veins
22 hours ago
Urr, I think the fth/sixth largest economy in the

world will survive Brexit. In fact it could very well
thrive if doom merchants (like yourself?) stop
winging and just get on nwith it. The doom n
gloom merchants who still haven't fathomed out
that the world is a big place and there are many
trading markets bigger and more expansive then
the cosy and complacent EU. Funny isn't it......the
UK has been trading with the world very
successfully for the past thousand years yet the
EU has only been around for about forty odd. See
the bigger picture son, see the bigger picture!
Reply Share 1 reply
0 likes
22 hours ago
Look what the EU has screwed in those 4o

or so years...
Reply Share
0 likes
22 hours ago
It's what is happening to the Euro - or "house of

cards" as the ECB's chief economist calls the
currency - at this moment. When it fails as it will
do. The ECB have told us it will fail.
Reply Share
0 likes
Corncrake
1 day ago
......and while we're on this theme.....how many pound coins

will a wheelbarrow hold, when you wanna buy your post-brexit
loaf?
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+5 likes
Morseman
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24 hours ago
Tech Sport Daily Edition
You beat me to it!

UK beware, life savings wiped out in a couple of weeks...
EFC in the veins
+4 likes
Christmas Appeal
23 hours ago
Oh the masters of doom! We're doomed, we're all

doomed! Quick, lets all bury our heads in the sand
8/11
11/30/2016
or hide behind the sofa. We're doomed!

RightLeft
-1 likes
23 hours ago
Yes, as a brexiter you will know all about

sticking your head in the sand.
Reply Share 1 reply
EFC in the veins
+4 likes
22 hours ago
I feel sorry for you for being so so

scared of the big wide world. Never
mind.
Reply Share
+1 likes
22 hours ago
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/ne
ws/eurozone-euro-collapse-house-of-cards-ecbsingle-currency-a7364826.html
Speaking to trade journal, Central Banking, Issing
said: One day, the house of cards will collapse.
He ought to know. he invented it!
I don't normally quote the Indy because it's so
much nonsense but even they have an article
about the Euro being about to die.
When we get the Italian results through that may
well push it over the edge.
Reply Share
yellowbrickroad
-1 likes
16 hours ago
The UK is going through an exchange rate

adjustment known as ERPT or Exchange Rate
Pass Through. It has nothing to do with too much
money chasing too little productive output which is what is happening in Venezuela and is
what happened in both Weimar and Zimbabwe.
If you're gonna start quoting the clever stu, you
need to know a lot more about what you're talking
about.
Oh wait, we're in a dierent world now where any
idiot can say anything and it's all equal.. My bad.
Reply Share
EFC in the veins
+1 likes
23 hours ago
Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh you're so

funny, ha ha ha ha ha ha. I really can't stop laughing at
how good your comment is! And here's me thinking how
bitter n twisted you are when all the time you are quite
funny! Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Honestly though, I think you
shouldn'tNews
give up
your day
job because
frankly,
19K
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are as funny as a burning orphanage.
RightLeft
-1 likes
Christmas Appeal
23 hours ago
A laughter of despair! You're right of course, we

can either laugh or weep at the brexit mess.
Nothing in between would suce as a reaction.
Reply Share 1 reply
+1 likes
9/11
11/30/2016
EFC in the veins
22 hours ago
We're leaving the EU. Deal with it and

move on.
Reply Share
-2 likes
anotherview3
1 day ago
It is not the fault of socialism, it is a matter of common sense.

If you have only one product to export, only one egg in one
basket you are very vulnerable, if that export changes. There is
surely a lesson for us? Agreed we have plenty of diversity but
most of our activities require us to buy raw materials rst or
co-operate in complex procedures with, guess who, the EU.
Mr Maduro sounds a bit like the Brexit supporters. He 'took
control' xed the exchange rate and ordered the banks to print
money. 'That should x it', he must have thought. He forgot
about common sense and the rest of the world.
+4 likes
Watussi
23 hours ago
errrr. .. yes it is Socialism.

how many more failed poor States do you need who
nationalize everything before you admit it?
They produce nothing as no one invests any Capital.All
outside business Capital and investments were stolen by
the state.
But hey.. next you will trot out the .yeah but it's not"
real" socialism or some nonsense.
Reply Share
-1 likes
RightLeft
23 hours ago
Socialism has pitifully little to do with common sense, so

your comment is moot.
Reply Share
-1 likes
Ardeleana De La Munte
1 day ago
it's easy to feed fairy tales about weighing bills to people who
never experienced hyperination. in Poland bills had milliondenomination, in Yugoslavia even billion - but nobody weighed
bills. it's just a journalistic metaphore, a hearsay "reportedly"
told by someone.
Reply Share 1 reply
-1 likes
Idlehands
23 hours ago
Didn't you read the article? There are no huge

denomination notes in Venezuela; they plan to print
them next year.
Reply Share
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+2 likes
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Venezuela's Currency Now Worth So Little Shopkeepers Weigh Vast Piles of Notes Instead of Counting Them - The Independent

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11/30/2016

News World Americas

Venezuela's currency now worth so little shopkeepers weigh vast

Venezuelans exchange bolivars into pesos to purchase Colombian goods Getty

Ination in Venezuela is expected to reach 720 per cent this year,

In 2014, plummeting global oil prices decimated Venezuela's

How the media would

Venezuelans are leaving their pets to starve

Dozens injured as violent anti-Maduro protests erupt in Venezuela

Man 'dismembered and eaten by inmates' during Venezuela prison

The country of 30 million does not publish consumer-price data

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Humberto Gonzalez, who runs a delicatessen in the city, said he

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His best-selling item is cigarettes, he said, which have climbed in

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bags of bills. Every day his business takes in hundreds of

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Log in or register to comment

There is likely to be a very poor tax regime too, since taxation

Shear populism. Unfortunately once the rot has set in so

Brexiteers please note. The exchange rate of your currency

If the world market in oil had rocketed, Venezuela would be

chavez (not maduro) pegged the currency more than a

Socialist paradise , beloved of the Indy , Guardian , Mirror,

Vladimir Ilyitch Puddleduck

And Castro revering Corbyn

Venezuela, a ne example of Communism in action.

This comment: a ne example of stereotyping socialism

Weighing cash to count it isn't as ludicrous as it sounds. Many

Weighing the cash is a surprisingly accurate way to count it.

You haven't seen Venezuelan notes... Some of the old

EFC in the veins

Quote from the article above....."In 2014, plummeting global oil

...be careful, be very careful because this could happen

EFC in the veins

Urr, I think the fth/sixth largest economy in the

Look what the EU has screwed in those 4o