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Venezuela's 'millionaires,' the new poor

Maria Isabel Sanchez, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/business/06/19/venezuela-economy.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>A worker counts Venezuelan bolivar notes at a parking lot in Caracas, Venezuela May 29, 2018. Marco Bello, Reuters</figcaption></figure></div>CARACAS -- Elizabeth Torres is outraged, but as a Venezuelan she takes the affront in her stride. &quot;We are a country of millionaires,&quot; she says ironically, eyeing a carton of eggs in the market. Price? Three million bolivars.&quot;You are a millionaire because you have to pay that much, and for that you get 36 eggs, but the minimum salary is 2.6 million! With what you get every month, you can&#x27;t buy them,&quot; she says.It&#x27;s the great irony of the country&#x27;s cruel decline. Sitting atop the world&#x27;s largest reserves of crude, Venezuela -- once Latin America&#x27;s richest country -- is now a state of millionaires, but the millions are in bolivars and practically worthless. According to the country&#x27;s leading universities, 87 percent of the population is now officially poor.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/05/14/18/how-once-mighty-venezuelan-economy-collapsed">How once-mighty Venezuelan economy collapsed</a></li>	<li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/05/08/18/venezuela-inflation-hits-13779-percent">Venezuela inflation hits 13,779 percent</a></li></ul>In the market in the eastern Caracas suburb of Chacao, Torres, a 64-year-old retired accountant, isn&#x27;t the only one to grumble.Between stalls of vegetables, meat and imitation leather shoes, people complain loudly about the cost of living. Torres&#x27; salary is equivalent to 32 dollars at the official exchange rate and barely one much-coveted black market dollar.Venezuelans have to pay seven-or-eight digit sums to buy staples like flour, rice, bread or some other reasonably nutritious and filling carbohydrate.Carmen Machado, 57, was fired a few days ago from her job at an office cleaning company. They gave her 5.8 million bolivars as severance pay after 4 years of service, she said. Enough to buy a kilo of meat.Venezuelans are forced to keep up with crazy prices that rise 2 or 3 times a week. The accumulation is staggering. The opposition-majority parliament says hyperinflation was nearly 25,000 percent in the last 12 months, meaning the price of an item now costs 250 times&#x27; what it did a year ago.<div>&#x27;NOT LIVING, SURVIVING&#x27;</div>At a pet shop, Olga Aviles, 53, is torn between buying a tin of food for her cat and a kilo of meat for the family. &quot;There always has to be a certain quota of sacrifice. If I spend on one thing, I don&#x27;t spend on the other.&quot;&quot;In Venezuela, we are not living, we are surviving,&quot; she said.&quot;If you buy fruit, you cannot buy vegetables. If you buy grains, you do not buy cereal.&quot;Though the government sells some subsidized foods in poorer neighborhoods and electricity, water and gas cost a pittance, many goods and services are priced on the value of a &quot;dolar negro&quot; or black market dollar -- worth 30 times the official one.Only a small sector of society has access to dollars. &quot;We have to ask family members outside to send something back. With what we get here we cannot eat,&quot; says Aurora Gonzalez, 71, whose son emigrated and sends home remittances to keep his family going.President Nicolas Maduro, whose controversial re-election in May will keep him in the presidency until 2025, argues that Venezuela&#x27;s inflation is the result of speculation and an economic war designed to cripple the country and force a transition.But Venezuelan economist Luis Vicente Leon blames the crisis on the state monopoly of foreign currency and strict price and exchange controls.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/05/21/18/maduro-wins-as-rivals-call-for-new-venezuela-elections">Maduro wins as rivals call for new Venezuela elections</a></li>	<li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/05/22/18/venezuelans-buy-bus-tickets-out-after-maduro-wins-re-election">Venezuelans buy bus tickets out after Maduro wins re-election</a></li></ul><div>&#x27;MILLIONAIRES OF LIES&#x27;</div>In March, Maduro announced a re-denomination of the bolivar, lopping off 3 zeroes from its value to counter hyperinflation. The launch has been postponed as the electronic banking system wasn&#x27;t ready and nor were the promised new banknotes printed.Leon dismisses the measures are &quot;an ephemeral work of art&quot;. &quot;Removing zeroes from the currency does not extinguish the fuse that causes hyperinflation,&quot; says the economist.Many Venezuelans are already lopping off the zeroes automatically, &quot;for convenience and for the psychological effect. For instance, when something costs 4.5 million we say 4,500,&quot; says Olga.In 2017, Maduro announced a new 100,000 bolivar bill, which would now no longer buy an egg. Now, the highest value will be 500 bolivars, which might buy you a coffee.For Elizabeth Torres and many like her, it&#x27;s a surreal, unfunny joke.&quot;We are millionaires of lies. What we are is poorer.&quot; <div> © Agence France-Presse</div>

It's the great irony of the country's cruel decline. Sitting atop the world's largest reserves of crude, Venezuela -- once Latin America's richest country -- is now a state of millionaires, but the millions are in bolivars and practically worthless.

It's the great irony of the country's cruel decline. Sitting atop the world's largest reserves of crude, Venezuela -- once Latin America's richest country -- is now a state of millionaires, but the millions are in bolivars and practically worthless.

Venezuela's 'millionaires,' the new poor

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Venezuela's 'millionaires,' the new poor

Maria Isabel Sanchez,

Agence France-Presse

Published Jun 19, 2018 02:43 PM PHT

Read More:

Venezuela

South America

hyperinflation

Nicolas Maduro

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