The Central Bank of Venezuela is lagging behind in terms of the delivery of economic data this year, by not publishing inflation figures for the last four months. Venezuelan economists believe that this delay could mean that the country is beginning to enter a new period of hyperinflation, and the government tries to hide this by not offering the figures.
Central Bank of Venezuela owes the public four months of economic data
The Central Bank of Venezuela has not published economic data for the last four months, which worries economists about the cause of the delay. The institution has not yet issued the inflation figures for November 2022, December 2022, January 2023 or February 2023, leaving the consultancies blindfolded and unable to make recommendations to their subsidiaries regarding economic strategy.
But according to Jesús Casique, a Venezuelan economist, the inflation figures are just the tip of the iceberg of the missing data. helmet fixed that the Central Bank of Venezuela is also hiding the figures of the balance of payments (inflow and outflow of foreign currency), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and gold reserves.
On the possible purpose of this supposed opacity, Casique explained:
It is quite possible that the central bank is not publishing inflation figures because the country is entering hyperinflation again.
According to unofficial sources, the Venezuelan inflation rate for 2022 reached 234%, the highest in all of Latam.
recurring behavior
One of the functions of the Central Bank of Venezuela, according to the law that regulates it, is “to collect, produce and publish the main economic, monetary, financial, exchange, price and balance of payments statistics”. However, this is not the first time that the central bank has fallen behind in its duties of reporting on the government’s economic performance.
The bank had a three-year hiatus, between 2016 and 2019, in which it did not offer GDP or CPI figures. It was also during these years that the country entered hyperinflation, with later official figures acknowledging an inflation rate of 130,060% in 2018 alone.
Naudy Pereira, a local economist, believes that the issuance of these figures is very important for both companies and individuals. She stated:
These figures would indicate to an investor whether or not there are possibilities to continue investing. Consumers are interested in knowing the inflation rate and the price variation because their family budget planning depends on that.
What do you think of the delay of the Central Bank of Venezuela in publishing economic data? Tell us in the comment section below.
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