Inflation in Venezuela is so out of control that even one of the country’s most beloved holiday treats is beyond the reach of many this Christmas.
Caracas-based research group Cenda estimates the cost of a hallaca, a tamale-like snack, at 35,498 bolivars (US$0.32 at the black market rate) this season. That is a whopping 1,724 percent increase from the previous year. Just five of the meat-filled, cornmeal wraps cost the same as the minimum monthly wage.
Over the past four years of recession, Venezuelans have suffered from soaring inflation and shortages of food and medicine. The economy shrank a staggering 16.5 percent last year, a government report filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday showed.
The SEC requires detailed economic filings from foreign governments that issue their debt in the US. The 150-page report indicated that inflation for last year reached 274.4 percent, while the unemployment rate in the calendar year ending on Dec. 31 last year reached 7.5 percent.
Venezuela is going through an acute economic crisis that intensified in 2014 with the fall in oil prices, the source of 96 percent of its export revenue.
There is a major shortage of food and medicines and a hyperinflationary spiral that is to exceed 2,000 percent this year, analysts say.
The IMF expects annual inflation to hit 2,300 percent next year.
Ready-made hallaca are selling for between 25,000 and 150,000 bolivars (US$0.22 and US$1.34), a significant outlay given an average monthly salary of about US$4. (All dollar calculations were done according to yesterday’s black market rate on dolartoday.com, which tracks the data.)
Those trying to make their own are scrounging in street markets for contraband corn flour and cooking oil. With most food imported, Venezuelans are forced to pay expensive foreign prices on their local wages. As a result, the hallaca fillings are paltry, with stewed vegetables in place of meat.
In response to the shortages, the government is subsidizing pre-made hallaca and their ingredients.
“A hallaca in our solidarity and revolutionary market costs only 3,500 bolivars, while in Julio Borges’ and Donald Trump’s speculative market it costs 50,000 bolivars,” said Minister of Urban Agriculture Freddy Bernal, referring to a Venezuelan opposition leader and the US President, in a video posted on Twitter.
Some Venezuelans are using social media to sell hallaca for up to US$70.
President Nicolas Maduro last month approved a one-time 500,000-bolivar “special Christmas bonus” for 4 million households, adding that the government would give every child a toy and each household up to 6kg of pork shoulder, another seasonal favorite.
Protests have erupted at the government’s failure to supply these packages, reports on social media said.
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