Alwaght- Venezuela has sheared five zeros from its currency and increased he minimum wage by more than thirtyfold in a move that President Nicolas Maduro says will tame the country's hyperinflation.
"Venezuela is going to experience an economic miracle,” said Maduro on Monday, adding that “I want the country to recover and I have the formula. Trust me.”
The new sovereign bolivar currency will also be linked to the locally-created Petro cryptocurrency.
Maduro also said increasing minimum wages by 3,000 percent was aimed at increasing the purchasing power of the nation.
"We are going to begin a process of recovery in the coming days, weeks and months..It is a revolutionary formula … unique in the world!,” he added.
"Venezuela is going to experience an economic miracle,” he noted.
Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, had already stripped three zeroes off the bolivar in 2008.
More than 500,000 Venezuelans have fled overseas this year as an economic crisis in their once-prosperous, oil-rich country gets worse.
Venezuela is in a fourth year of recession, hamstrung by shortages of basic goods and stalled public services. International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that that inflation could hit 1,000,000 percent this year.
But on Friday Maduro unveiled a dramatic raft of measures designed to end a depression he blames on an “economic war” being waged by imperialist foes of the Bolivarian revolution he inherited after Hugo Chávez’s 2013 death.
The announcement comes several days after, Venezuela arrested two high-ranking military officers as part of an investigation into what the government says was an assassination plot against Maduro.
Maduro, who escaped the attack unharmed, blamed the opposition, which denied the allegation and accused the president of staging the attack to “irresponsibly and sweepingly” crack down on his opponents.
