Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a televised address, escorted by Deputy Diosdado Cabello and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. Photo: Presidential Press.
This Monday, December 12, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro noted that the devaluation of the Venezuelan currency that has occurred in recent weeks has been caused by “a disturbance by the criminal (parallel) dollar.” He called on Venezuelans to “defend the official dollar marker—a realistic, objective exchange rate—and not the criminal one managed by four Miami mafias.”
President Maduro also acknowledged that, in recent weeks, there have been objective conditions affecting the market, such as a sharp increase, or “overheating,” in commercial transactions (electronic payment), which rose from 100,000 per minute, on a regular busy day, to more than 700,000—events which were taken advantage of by “criminal dollar mafias.”
President Maduro requested that citizens “confront the criminal dollar, together with the presence of all the country’s economic agents.” The comments were made during working meeting with the political, military, and national government authorities which took place in La Casona Cultural Aquiles Nazoa.
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“I ask the businessmen: what do you want?” Maduro said. “That the times of economic warfare, of instability, return? When economic instruments were used to harm people’s lives? What do merchants want? That the difficult times return? Or do you want better times to return—of stability, of tranquility, of win-win, of respecting the people, of not deepening inequalities?”
The black market dollar rate closed last Friday at Bs. 18.26, with a 29 percent difference over the official rate, which closed at Bs. 14.12.
This black market exchange rate is disseminated through websites and accounts on Instagram. Merchants attempt to sell their products at the parallel (black market) dollar rate when people want to pay them in bolívars, alleging that their suppliers charge them using that rate. Instead, the official rate is offered by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), which is obtained through the weighted average of the operations of the exchange tables of the banking institutions, which sell dollars through their websites.
The official dollar also had a strong rebound in the last 30 days: on November 9, it was at Bs. 8.91, and last Friday, December 9, it was at Bs. 14.12, which implies a 58% devaluation in just one month. On September 12 it was at Bs. 7.95 and on October 10 it was at Bs. 8.19. This Monday, December 12, the official rate closed at Bs. 14.12 and the parallel dropped slightly to Bs. 17.45 following the announcement by President Maduro this Saturday that measures would be taken to defend the official rate.
“Criminal dollar” responds to an “overheating” of commercial transactions
Maduro recalled this Monday that the official marker reported by the BCV works “according to the rules of the economy and the market.” He indicated that it “had great stability for months, until the criminal dollar began to act on the basis of an objective fact, which is the overheating of commercial transaction activity.”
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On a day of high activity, up to 100,000 commercial transactions per minute could be made. However, during “Black Friday” last November, in which businesses and companies sell products at bargain prices, 500,000 transactions were made per minute and, during the past weekend, 700,000 commercial electronic transactions per minute were reported.
“It is an overheating of internal trade, of the internal market, and of transactions,” said President Maduro. “On this basis, the criminal dollar rides from Miami to harm the Venezuelan economy.” This indicator is also an evidence of the strong recovery shown by the Venezuelan economy in recent months.
The Venezuelan head of state did not hesitate to state that these problems will be overcome, and that the results regarding economic growth for 2023 and 2024 will be positive and manageable since, in his opinion, they will be years “of economic recovery, of entrepreneurship, years for heal the social and economic wounds and the inequalities that have been created as a result of criminal sanctions, criminal blockade, and economic warfare.”
Last Friday the black-market exchange rate closed at 18.26 bolivars per dollar. After several announcements on this complex economic issue, made by Maduro himself and top officials from his government, the black market exchange rate closed this Tuesday, December 13, at 15.89.
(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
