Venezuelan bolivar – what can it buy you?

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has issued a new currency to manage the country’s runaway inflation, which the IMF predicts will hit 1,000,000 percent this year.

The Venezuelan bolivar has become near-worthless, following a severe economic downturn.

A 2.4kg chicken has been costing 14,600,000 bolivars (equivalent to $2.22, or £1.74) in the capital, Caracas.

Venezuelans have been stocking their homes with food before the measures took effect, amid concerns that confusion and overburdened banking systems could make trade impossible.

A packet of 1kg of rice cost 2,500,000 bolivars.

In July this year inflation hit 82,70 percent.

Alicia Ramirez, 38, a business administrator, spoke to Reuters in a supermarket in the western city of Maracaibo: “I came to buy vegetables, but I’m leaving because I’m not going to wait in this line.

“People are going crazy.”

For a packet of sanitary pads you need 3,500,000 bolivars. A kilo of tomatoes? That’ll be 5,000,000 bolivars.

A kilogram of cheese costs 7,500,000 bolivars

Nappies could be purchased for 8,000,000 bolivars.

And a kilogram of meat cost 9,500,000 bolivars.