Panicked people RUSH to shops and form HUGE queues as economy collapses.
VENEZUELAN people have rushed to shops and formed huge queues in preparation for a monetary overhaul that will remove five zeros from prices as the economic crisis continues to grip the South American country.
Shoppers are panicking in response to hyperinflation that is making cash increasingly worthless, ensuring their homes are stocked with food before the measure decreed by President Nicolas Maduro takes effect on Monday.
This will see a new set of bank notes introduced with lower denominations and internet banking operations suspended for several hours from Sunday evening.
The majority of transactions are now made via debit cards over point-of-sale terminals and many people worry the change could collapse financial networks.
In July, inflation skyrocketed to a huge 82,700 percent as the country’s socialist economic model continues to fall apart, meaning purchases of basic household items requires piles of cash that are often difficult to obtain.
The same month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also predicted that inflation could soar by as much as one million percent before the end of 2018.
Business administrator Alicia Ramirez, 38, described a scene of chaos as she left a supermarket in the western city of Maracaibo.
“People are going crazy.”
The roads were bare in the capital of Caracas on Friday as shopkeepers prepared for the overhaul.
Mr Maduro has claimed Venezuela is the victim of an “economic war” led by political rivals but insisted the measure would bring stability to the stuttering nation.
But the President’s critics have labelled the move as an accounting manoeuvre that will not slow soaring prices, and blame inflation on failed socialist policies.
Yoleima Manrique, an assistant manager of a home appliance store in Caracas, told Reuters: “This is going to be complete disaster, we don’t have information.
Yuraima Galaviz, who was shopping in the western city of San Cristobal, raged: “I don’t understand this monetary conversion, the government has not explained how it will work or what salaries will be.
“How are we supposed to buy things if we haven’t even seen the new bills?”
The confusion over the new monetary notes has seen poor Venezuelans without bank accounts carrying wads of cash to make basic purchases.
For example, buying a kilogram of cheese, worth the equivalent of $1.14 at the most widely used exchange rate, requires 7,500 notes of 1,000 bolivar denomination – a note that was only brought fully into circulation in 2017.
A bar of soap, which sells for the equivalent of $0.53, requires 3,500 of the same notes.
The overhaul from Mr Maduro is unlikely to mirror the chaos seen in December 2016 when the President removed the largest bank note in circulation without replacing it.
Protests broke out, shops were looted and hundreds of people were arrested as the country was effectively left without legal tender.
