Inflation-hit Venezuela supplied with new currency from Malta

Venezuela, which is facing inflation levels of some 475 per cent, has ordered new currency from a supplier in Malta, which has printed up 7.4 million new banknotes for the ailing South American economy.

Venezuelan Central Bank deputy director Jose Khan announced yesterday that a shipment of 2.9 million 20,000-bolivar bills and 4.5 million 5,000-bolivar bills had arrived from Malta. The only active currency printer in Malta at present is De La Rue, as the new Crane Currency operation in Hal Far is being constructed.

The bank did not say how the commissioning of the 7.4 million new banknotes cost the country.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had again delayed removing the country’s largest bank note from circulation on Thursday, after a botched plan to retire it triggered violent protests.

The 100-bolivar note will now remain legal tender until 20 January instead of 2 January, “so everyone can spend their New Year’s in calm,” Maduro announced in a national address.

The central bank meanwhile announced the arrival of new 20,000-bolivar bills, meant to replace the old money as Venezuela grapples with the world’s highest inflation rate - set to hit 475 percent this year - according to the International Monetary Fund.

As Venezuela flounders through a devastating economic crisis, inflation has gutted the value of its currency, the bolivar.

The 100-bolivar note is worth just 15 US cents at the highest official exchange rate, leaving Venezuelans stuck carrying huge stacks of them for even minor purchases.

Maduro triggered riots and looting two weeks ago when he tried to pull the 100-bolivar bill from circulation before replacements had arrived - leaving Venezuelans desperately short of cash for food and Christmas presents.

The leftist leader alleged international “mafias” were hoarding 100-bolivar bills abroad in a USbacked conspiracy.

But after his move to pull it from circulation triggered unrest, he extended its life until January 2.

Venezuela has been rocked by low prices for its key export, oil.

Now in its third year of a deep recession, it is facing severe shortages of food, medicine and basic household goods.

Another 60 million 500-bolivar bills have arrived in recent days, he said, without specifying from where they have been commissioned.

The new bills have yet to appear on the street, however. So far, Venezuelans have only seen new 50-bolivar coins.

The date the new bills will enter circulation will be announced in January, Khan said.

Venezuela military trafficking food as country goes hungry

When hunger drew tens of thousands of Venezuelans to the streets last summer in protest, President Nicolas Maduro turned to the military to manage the country’s diminished food supply, putting generals in charge of everything from butter to rice.

But instead of fighting hunger, the military is making money from it, an Associated Press investigation this week showed. That’s what grocer Jose Campos found when he ran out of pantry staples this year. In the middle of the night, he would travel to an illegal market run by the military to buy corn flour — at 100 times the government-set price.

“The military would be watching over whole bags of money,” Campos said. “They always had what I needed.”

With much of the oil country on the verge of starvation and malnourished children dying in paediatric wards, food trafficking has become big business in Venezuela. And the military is at the heart of the graft, according to documents and interviews with more than 60 officials, company owners and workers, including five former generals.

As a result, food is not reaching those who most need it.

The late President Hugo Chavez created a Food Ministry in 2004. His socialist government nationalized and then neglected farms and factories, and domestic production dried up. When the price of oil collapsed in 2014, the government no longer could afford to import all the country needed.

Hungry Venezuelans began rioting, and so Maduro handed the generals complete power over food. The government now imports nearly all the country’s food, and corruption drives prices sky-high, said Werner Gutierrez, agronomy professor at the University of Zulia.

“If Venezuela paid market prices, we’d be able to double our imports,” Gutierrez said. “Instead, people are starving.”

Venezuelan Central Bank deputy director announced that a shipment of 2.9 million 20,000-bolivar bills and 4.5 million 5,000bolivar bills had arrived from Malta.