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After 5 zeroes taken off, a roll of tissue paper sells for 2.6 million bolivars in Venezuela
The country is undergoing huge reforms in a bid to rescue the downward-spiralling economy, including a new currency that chops five zeros off notes.
Here are the amazing figures:
A roll of toilet paper will set you back 2,600,000 bolivars.
A 2.4 kg chicken is pictured next to 14,600,000 bolivars – about £2
A kilogram of cheese is pictured next to 7,500,000 bolivars
A package of nappies is pictured next to 8,000,000 bolivars
A kilogram of tomatoes is pictured next to 5,000,000 bolivars
A kilogram of meat is pictured next to 9,500,000 bolivars
A kilogram of carrots is pictured next to 3,000,000 bolivars
A kilogram of cheese is pictured next to 7,500,000 bolivars
A bar of soap is pictured next to 3,500,000 bolivars(
A package of 1kg of pasta is pictured next to 2,500,000 bolivars
A package of 1kg of rice is pictured next to 2,500,000
A package of 1kg of corn flour is pictured next to 2,500,000 bolivars
President Nicolas Maduro says he’ll also raise gasoline prices to international levels – a combination of measures critics say will only make things worse. Opposition leaders seized on tension among residents, calling for a nationwide strike and protest Tuesday.
They hope to draw masses into the streets against Maduro’s socialist ruling party – something they’ve failed to do in over a year. Banks will close Monday as they prepare to release the ‘sovereign bolivar,’ the new currency printed with five fewer zeroes in a bid to tame soaring inflation.
Maduro’s government says that in late-September, the world’s cheapest gas will rise to international levels to curtail rampant smuggling across borders. Maduro said Friday that the minimum wage will also soon jump dramatically.
Economists say the package of measures is likely to accelerate hyperinflation rather than address its core economic troubles, like oil production plunging to levels last seen in 1947.
‘The measures announced on Friday are not any economic recovery plan for the country,’ opposition leader Andres Velasquez said.
‘On the contrary, they represent more hunger, more ruin, more poverty, more suffering, more pain, more inflation, more deterioration of the economy.’
Business owners say they fear the sudden wage hike would make them unable to pay employees without sharply increasing prices, despite Maduro’s call to help small and mid-sized businesses for the first three months.
Jesus Pacheco, who employs six people at his butcher shop in Caracas, said Sunday that he may have no option but to let go some of his employees to stay in business. He expects the slaughterhouse prices will go up for him.
‘You’re going to buy products, and they’re more expensive,’ Pacheco said. ‘We are going to have to fire employees. What else can you do?’