(Caracas) Venezuela announced measures on Saturday “to defend” its currency, the bolivar, which lost 17% of its value against the US dollar last week.
“Faced with the onslaught of the criminal dollar, I ordered the economic team to take action to defend the official rate, for a healthy trade that respects the rights of the people,” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro posted on Twitter. .
Last week, the value of the dollar fell from 11.69 to 14.12 bolivars, representing a 17.20% depreciation of the currency of Venezuela, a basic trend since October 2021.
According to several economic analysts, the billions of dollars injected by the State into the foreign exchange market to maintain rates have maintained the instability of the bolivar.
“This attempt by the Central Bank to fix, to anchor the exchange rate for two years already, has failed,” economist and professor at the Central University of Venezuela, Leonardo Vera, told AFP.
“We sought to establish a fairly low exchange rate, lower than what an equilibrium exchange rate would be” in an unfavorable context, he added.
To which is added, recalled Mr. Vera, a tax on large transactions in dollars with the aim of “bolivarizing” the economy, even though Venezuelans do not have confidence in their currency.
The government, for its part, sees in the depreciation of the bolivar an “offensive” aimed at slowing down “the growth” of the country.
The country’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, said Friday that Venezuela’s GDP growth was “in double digits”, without revealing them.