An analog alarm clock sits on top of a spread of one dollar bills. Photo: CGTN.
The vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, stated that President Maduro’s administration is working to reduce the gap between the official exchange rate of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) and the parallel rate with the dollar.
During a meeting with the Federation of Chambers and Associations of Commerce and Production (Fedecámaras) on Thursday, October 17, the vice president said, “This gap is currently an issue, and we are already working, with concrete measures and actions. It is time to perform a surgical operation to reduce this gap.”
“This gap creates many distortions, and profiteers use it to wage economic warfare against the government and set any price for the dollar,” she said. “The price that is seen on the [unofficial] websites is not real, but there is political and financial exploitation that attempts to make profits out of this gap.”
The vice president added that currently there is a high demand for foreign currency in Venezuela due to increased demand generated by the economic growth.
“There is a variation, but there is also a great demand for foreign currency, because growth requires more foreign currency, and we see that comparing imports of 2023 and 2024, there is a greater demand for foreign currency,” she stated.
Rodríguez also condemned that illegal US blockade that “continues to restrict Venezuela’s access to foreign currency, and the sources that exist in the private banking system are insufficient.”
Venezuela: Central Bank Moves To Stabilize Currency Exchange
In this regard, Rodríguez showed a slide and explained the variation of the official exchange rate between January and September this year. “In 2024, the variation is 2.68. In 2023 it was 96.84—the official one. In 2020 it was 836, in 2021 it was 277, and in 2024 it is 2.68. The variation is decreasing,” she remarked.
She also showed the variation in the unofficial currency exchange market. “In 2018, the variation was 8.701, and in 2024 it is 11.88 compared to last year.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Carlos Eduardo Sánchez
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
