Venezuela: the economic situation worsens

In Venezuela, the economic situation is near collapse: the lack of basic necessities has become so serious that in recent days there have been several outbreaks of violence, starting from the state of Cabobo, where some demonstrators blocked for hours and for second consecutive day, the highway accesses that connects Valencia to Puerto Cabello to ask, first of all, that the national government to restore the drinking water supplies. Only the intervention of the National Guard allowed to remove roadblocks.

To try to give answers to a population exhausted by endless queues in front of shops, shortage of goods on the shelves, scheduled blackouts and rising prices relentlessly, the National Economic Council met yesterday, set up by President Nicolas Maduro last January 19. The vice-president Perez Abad said to be deeply concerned about the shortage of medicines, other commodities and for the accused inconvenience by the population, as long lines for grocery shopping, promising a government involvement to improve the efficiency of distribution.

The crisis is also manifested by the collapse of the legal exchange rate semi-free, in force for one year, Simadi. On the platform controlled by the state, but which allows currency exchanges tend according to market criteria, the relationship between the dollar and the bolivar has broken through Tuesday the 400 threshold, reaching 403.45 and so recording an almost halving in just two months (-48 %).