Venezuela registers first monthly inflation drop in 17 years

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Venezuela registers first monthly inflation drop in 17 years

10:43 CAT | 07 Mar 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. Venezuela's annual inflation, however, remained at one of the highest rates in the world at 85 percent. [File photo: AFP]

Consumer prices in Venezuela fell slightly in February, the first monthly drop in at least 17 years, the non-governmental OVF observatory said Wednesday.

Prices dropped 0.5 percent from January to February, according to the OVF, the authority on public finances in a country where official statistics are few and far between.

Annual inflation, however, remained at one of the highest rates in the world at 85 percent.

The OVF said a drop in consumption was one of the main reasons for the monthly downward trend in Venezuela, which has long battled hyperinflation and finds itself in the midst of an acute economic crisis that has fueled mass emigration.

Food prices, in particular, decreased 3.1 percent in February as many stores cut prices in a bid to stimulate sales.

Other factors were a slight appreciation of the Venezuelan bolivar to the dollar, an injection of foreign currency into the economy by the BCV central bank and a decline in money printing.

There is no inflation data on the BCV website before 2007.

Venezuela heads to the polls for presidential elections on July 28, with incumbent Nicolas Maduro widely expected to seek reelection and his main opposition challenger disqualified from running.

The country had seen a relaxation of some US sanctions after the government and opposition agreed in negotiations in Barbados last year to hold elections in 2024.

That allowed US-based Chevron to resume limited crude extraction in the oil-rich South American nation as part of an effort to keep down global oil prices while the West pressed sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine.

But the continued disqualification of opposition primary winner Maria Corina Machado has seen the return of some punitive measures against the Maduro government.

Source: AFP