Venezuela on Monday slashed five zeros from prices as part of a broad economic plan that President Nicolas Maduro says will tame hyperinflation but critics call another raft of failed socialist policies that will push the chaotic country deeper into crisis.
Streets were quiet and shops were closed due to a national holiday that Maduro decreed for the first day of the new pricing plan for the stricken economy, which the International Monetary Fund has estimated will have 1 million per cent inflation by year end.
The price change comes with a 3,000 per cent minimum wage hike and tax increases meant to shore up government revenue and a plan to peg salaries, prices and the country's exchange rate tied to the petro, an elusive state-backed cryptocurrency.
Economists say the plan announced on Friday is likely to escalate the crisis facing the once-prosperous country that is now suffering from Soviet-style product shortages and a mass exodus of citizens fleeing for nearby South American countries.
Venezuelans are mostly baffled by the monetary overhaul and sceptical it will turn the country around.
"This is out of control, prices are sky high," said Betzabeth Linares, 47, in a...
