Venezuela’s Bolivar Sees 454% Inflation in Q1 as Maduro Hawks the Petro Leaving Country on The Brink Of Economic Collapse

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Runaway inflation continues to devalue the Venezuelan Bolivar, even as the country’s authoritarian government seeks to divert attention from the floundering economy by hawking its “Petro” cryptocurrency. Prices in Venezuela rose by 454 percent during the first quarter of 2018 and have swelled by 8,900 percent over the past 12 months. This hyperinflation has left Venezuela on the brink of economic collapse, and residents are fleeing the country at an estimated rate of 5,000 migrants per day. A group of workers at Venezuela’s state-owned oil company are requesting wages in dollars as well as meal plans and better health insurance to make up for what they called "suffocating" economic conditions. An oil worker’s basic monthly wage stands at about 8.8 million bolivars. That’s around $14 at today’s black market average rate of about 650,000 bolivars per dollar.