A few days ago Hugo Chávez, our despotic extra-bigmouthed military ruler, the self-proclaimed owner of Venezuela’s oil revenue checkbook, with which he even gives away cheap oil to poor Londoner’s, whom, by the way, have a minimal wage ten times bigger than a middle class worker in Venezuela, and who also funds (illegally) the FARC’s terrorists… but let’s not get off the topic.
A few days ago Hugo Chávez said in one of his Sunday 6 to 8 hours televised and radioed show “Alo Presidente", that in Venezuela economy is “normal". He gave an example, he said that last year a big cup of coffee (about 5 oz.) used to cost Bs. 300 ($ 1 = Bs. 2150, officially), he said that today it costs Bs. F. 3 (Bs. F. stands for Bolívares Fuertes which is our new revolutionary currency. The “New” is a simply trick to fool, the government subtracted zeros to the old money, so now, what last year would be priced at Bs. 3000, like a cup of coffee, now costs Bs. F. 3).
Well, as far as I know, 3000 is larger than 300, a simple guess makes me believe that is, maybe ten times more, and I emphasize “maybe", because Chávez might have changed math’s rules in a speach today and I’m not aware of it yet.
Chávez tought us during his show, that from one year to another, for an item to be ten times more expensive, is not inflation, it is normal.
So in Venezuela we have a very normal economy. Last year I used to eat a milk candy that used to cost Bs. 50 each. Now it costs Bs. 200. That isn’t inflation, it is normal. A Coca-Cola used to cost Bs. 1200, now it costs Bs. 1700 (can) to 2000 (small plastic bottle)… not inflation. I can mention hundreds of products that tripled or more its price in less than a year, but revolutionaries will attack me for that (or for anything else). There is no inflation in Venezuela.
There is another normal aspect of our economy. It is called sub-zero inflation. It applies to those products that despite “normal” inflation, tend to keep the same price for a year or more.
The sub-zero inflation applies to about 25% percent of medicines in Venezuela that, thanks to our normal economy and the currency control, disappeared from drugstore’s shelves.
Recently I learned I suffer from Hyperthyroidism, and I have to take several pills of Tapazol daily. I managed to buy 2 boxes after spending half a day searching in 12 pharmacies. Nobody knows when or if, the medicine will be back. Normal.
To not defame the governmental economical team in Venezuela, I will admit that they in turn admit there is inflation. Its supposed to be around 9% so far in the first 4 months of this year. Yet they swear it will not reach 30% at the end of this year. They have a formula for that; they will monitor and change CPI as needed.
For example, tissue paper, which has been scarce if not absent for almost a year, went from Bs. 1700 to Bs. 6000-8500… Solution: Tissue paper; out of CPI!
Well the last is not exactly like that, of course they can’t take tissue paper from Consumer’s Price Index, they will keep it there at a price that is not real; a regulated price of Bs. 1700. So that, won’t affect inflation, but the truth is that there is no place where you can get tissue paper at Bs. 1700, the cheapest you will find is one roll at Bs. 1500.
Finally, revolutionaries in Venezuela are so happy because minimum wages has been raised 30%. The government raised the minimum wage to $ 372 calculated with the officially imposed dollar exchange ($ 1 = Bs. 2150), but the truth is that the government restricts dollars for importers and the latter have to buy them in the black market or secondary market or parallel market to import goods… at 3500 to 6000 Bolívares per dollar (more, not less). So goods are imported at a, let’s say 5000 Bs. per dollar rate, making the minimum wage descend to $ 160. Which is exactly how it was before Chávez became president.
Supposedly Einstein said, “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.” When one sees that Chávez is still supported in his country and around the world, well, there is no doubt Einstein was absolutely and not relatively right.

 Uncategorized, Politics, Personal, Opinion, Venezuela, News