Venezuela lops off five zeros

CARACAS • Some Venezuelans worried on Thursday about how to pay for public transport and gasoline after leftist President Nicolas Maduro announced plans to slash five zeros off the country’s bolivar currency, rather than the three originally planned.

The more aggressive socalled currency re-domination comes in response to Venezuela’s hyperinflation, which the IMF has said will soar to 1 million per cent this year, destroying salaries and throwing the OPEC nation’s already battered economy into a deeper tailspin.

Maduro’s announcement late Wednesday spawned confusion as to whether there would be legal tender small enough to pay for public transit or gasoline — which is so subsidized that filling up a car at a gas station costs less than the equivalent of one Canadian cent at the black market exchange rate.

“How will I pay for transport? They charge me 60,000 bolivars. With five zeros fewer, that would be in cents,” said Griselda Osorio, 55, as she shopped at a market. “I am going to have to forget about transport and just walk. How will I put (prepaid credit) on my phone? Where do I find cents for that? This will just make things worse,” said Osorio, a nurse whose current salary of 4 million bolivars — about US$1.30 — will turn into 40 bolivars.

It also remains unclear whether banks can adjust their systems and cash machines by the announced deadline of Aug. 20.