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Inflation in Venezuela in November was 21.9%, 7.4 percentage points higher than in October, according to data released Monday by the Venezuelan Finance Observatory (OVF), an independent entity outside the country’s Central Bank.
The accumulated inflation for the first 11 months of the year rose to 195.7%.
The OVF stated that this acceleration of inflation occurred in a context of a “significant” depreciation of the bolivar, estimated at 43%, and a “loss of reserves of 1,154 million dollars” between November 2021 and 2022.
“This suggests that the BCV’s (Central Bank of Venezuela) policy of interventions in the exchange market to stabilize the exchange rate has lost effectiveness and fails to contain the rise in prices, while at the same time generating a drain on the BCV’s reserves,” he added on Venezuela’s inflation.
The sectors with the highest increases in November were leisure at 30.4 %; goods and services at 27.9 %; education at 29.4 %; and clothing and footwear at 27.5 %.
Likewise, the OVF indicated that the cost of the food basket, calculated for a family of five, was 366 dollars, while the “minimum salary remains at 130 bolivares (11.62 dollars)”.
“The existing salary gap has been impacted by the increase in the exchange rate. Thus, while the average payment in the Metropolitan Area of Caracas stands at 120 dollars per month for the private sector, in the public sector it reaches only 11 dollars per month,” added the entity, made up of former congress members and economic experts.
Venezuela emerged last December from hyperinflation which started in 2017 and went on for four years to reduce the value of the bolivar, the official currency, as well as citizens’ trust in it, so they unofficially adopted the dollar in an attempt to protect their income.
