Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Bernie's socialism at work: IMF Says Venezuela's Inflation Rate May Rise Beyond 2,300% in 2018

IMF Says Venezuela's Inflation Rate May Rise Beyond 2,300% in 2018

  • Next year’s price estimate increased from a previous 2,069%
  • GDP estimates for 2017, 2018 revised down to 12% and 6%
A carton of eggs sits on an empty shelf at a supermarket in the Chacao district of Caracas, Venezuela, on Aug. 24, 2017.Photographer: Fabiola Ferrero/Bloomberg
Venezuela’s triple-digit annual inflation rate is set to jump to more than 2,300 percent in 2018, the highest estimate for any country tracked by the International Monetary Fund.
An intensifying political crisis that’s spiraled since 2014 has weighed heavily on economic activity. Gross domestic product is expected to contract 6 percent next year, after shrinking an estimated 12 percent in 2017, the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report published Tuesday.
While Venezuela’s central bank stopped publishing inflation data in December 2015, the IMF argues the country’s consumer prices are estimated to leap 2,349.3 percent in 2018, the highest in their estimates, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 44 percent. As oil production declines and uncertainty increases, unemployment is forecast to increase to about 30 percent in 2018, also the highest and followed by South Africa’s 28 percent and Greece’s 21 percent.
The Bolivarian Republic isn’t current with most of its key economic statistics, leaving economists scant data to crunch. Before Venezuela’s new legislative super body took over the functions of the country’s only remaining opposition-run institution this year, the sidelined National Assembly had started publishing its own inflation index due to the lack of official data. Bloomberg’s Cafe Con Leche Index puts the annual rate at 650 percent.

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