Venezuelans confused over new bolivar currency
Calculators, conversion tables being used
CARACAS, VENEZUELA • Venezuelans confused over the new banknotes popping out of their ATMs on Tuesday resorted to using calculators and conversion charts to figure out the value of each bill as the country’s new currency — with five fewer zeros — started circulating.
“I still don’t understand it very well,” said Caracas homemaker Maritza Vargas, withdrawing a 5 bolivar bill from her Caracas bank. “The truth is that I’m still not clear.”
The new currency is part of President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to confront runaway inflation and a plummeting economy that has pushed tens of thousands of Venezuelans to flee abroad.
Maduro’s plan includes increasing the minimum wage on Sept. 1 by more than 3,000 per cent, setting gasoline prices at international prices and imposing new price controls.
As the new money went into use, banks capped customers daily ATM withdrawals at 10 bolivars — roughly US15 cents on the commonly used black market.
At that rate it would take seven days to buy a 2 litre bottle of Coca-Cola, though customers can use their debit cards to make much larger purchases electronically.
Venezuela’s largest bill was 100,000 bolivars — worth less than US3 cents — under the former currency. The new bills top out at 500 bolivars — currently worth about US$7.50.
Inflation this year could top 1 million per cent, according to the IMF.
One bank passed out conversion charts to help customers, while other customers brought hand-held calculators, unsure how much basic goods like eggs and rice will cost in the new currency.
“We have to be on the lookout,” said Yulima Rivas at an ATM in Maracaibo. “If we make a mistake, it’s like being robbed.”
The opposition had called for a work stoppage and protests on Tuesday across Venezuela. Despite the call, the streets appeared calm, while businesses in Caracas seemed slow to reopen following a bank holiday Monday to allow for the conversion.
Maduro’s socialist party called its own rally on Tuesday in a show of support for the embattled president, the subject of a failed drone attack in early August.
Caracas resident Carlos Espana proudly held crisp bolivar notes he’d taken from the bank, but he worried that the government’s plans would spur faster inflation.
“More confusion. Higher costs,” he said, noting that he would have to stand in line at an ATM for two days to buy a single empanada.