Confusion over new currency in Venezuela

Shuttered stores, empty streets, confusion over the cost of basic items: the day after President Nicolas Maduro introduced measures to invigorate Venezuela’s economy found the country in turmoil and its population afraid his “program for recovery, growth and economic prosperity” would lead it deeper into depression.

The measures included increasing taxes, raising the price of gas for some buyers who do not register with the government, and slashing five zeros from the devalued currency, the bolívar, which was renamed the sovereign bolívar.

The currency change left many consumers — and vendors — bewildered. On Monday, the day the new economic plan was rolled out, streets were quiet and most shops were closed, as Maduro had decreed a national holiday. But most remained closed Tuesday as shopkeepers tried to understand how to reset prices in the new currency and buyers struggled with the conversion.

Rosa Peña walked into a small shoe shop that was open in the low-income neighbourhood of Petare, in Caracas, to look for flip-flops for her granddaughter. She brought a cellphone, which she borrowed from her daughter, to calculate what she would pay for the shoes in the new currency and to compare that with what she would have paid in the old, familiar one.

Even with the help of a conversion app for the two currencies, she couldn’t grasp what the new price meant.

“I can’t even understand these numbers,” Peña said, holding up the phone. “My daughter gave me this, and she showed me how to use it, but we can’t understand when we convert big amounts.”

The new plan also introduced an increase in the minimum wage of more than 3,000 per cent, which many business owners said they could not afford, leaving employees afraid for their jobs.