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In a radical attempt to end a prolonged period of economic turmoil in the oil-rich, but cash-poor nation, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday that his socialist administration would issue new banknotes after lopping five zeroes off the beleaguered bolivar.
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"I want the country to recover and I have the formula. Trust me," Maduro said in a speech broadcast on state television Friday evening.
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted inflation in the country will exceed 1 million percent this year.
A major currency overhaul in Venezuela is due to come into effect Monday, with critics of the move fearful it will exacerbate hyperinflation in the crisis-stricken country.
In a radical attempt to end a prolonged period of economic turmoil in the oil-rich, but cash-poor nation, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Friday that his socialist administration would issue new banknotes after lopping five zeroes off the beleaguered bolivar.
The move effectively devalues Venezuela's currency by around 96 percent, with the bolivar set to go from about 285,000 per dollar to 6 million. Other measures announced in Maduro's speech to the nation last week included highly-subsidized gas prices, a higher corporate tax rate and a massive minimum wage increase .
Economists say that by introducing the proposed measures, Maduro's administration is only likely to make matters worse. Caracas' cash-strapped government has recently defaulted on its bondholders and is currently facing the prospect of further U.S. sanctions .
Luis Vicente Leon, president of the Caracas-based pollster Datanalisis, said Venezuela's latest package of economic measures is likely to cause major problems for domestic businesses.
"The transition to apply the concrete elements of the proposal: exponential increase in salaries, massive requests for advancement of benefits and increase and change of frequency of tax payments puts companies in a situation of catastrophic cash flow," Leon said in a tweet posted on Friday.
'Trust me'
Venezuela's revamped currency — set to be named the sovereign bolivar in order to distinguish it from the strong bolivar — will also be pegged to the country's widely discredited petro cryptocurrency.
"I want the country to recover and I have the formula. Trust me," Maduro said in a speech broadcast on state television Friday evening.
"They've dollarized our prices. I am petrolizing salaries and petrolizing prices … We are going to convert the petro into the reference that pegs the entire economy's movements," he added.