I was in Caracas two weeks ago, but kept traveling afterwards, thus I am late in reporting the price increase of the June arepa, which by now does not surprise anybody. Despite the Government’s efforts to limit monetary liquidity, as a way of stopping the parallel dollar, you can see from the graph above that the slope is essentially the same.
The price of the arepa rose from Bs. 1,400 to Bs. 1,600, a 14.7% increase in four weeks, comparable per month to increases in recent months. The one year increase was 400%, roughly in line with values since December.
One interesting fact was that I actually go to two different arepa places and this one has been the most expensive one since I began keeping tabs in late 2014. Not this time, as the same arepa de queso de mano cost much more at the second location. This to me indicates the difficulty people have in setting prices, a characteristic of hyperinflation. I noticed this also in restaurants. By now, supermarkets are crowded at all times. I was told that the supermarket I have been going to since I was like 17 will be shutting down. The owners are simply scared now to handle crowds or risk looting.
The disconnect between Maduro and those that surround him is simply staggering. The party of the “people” no lonegr recognizes who the “people” are. Or what they want…
The Devil's Excrement 
July 17, 2016 at 10:09 am
So much for wheel barrows full of worthless cash. The sky is the limit with electronic money.
July 14, 2016 at 11:03 am
I wonder why there is still inflation? I thought I read that VZ was so broke that they could no longer pay to have notes printed.
Or are they paying their employees and vendors electronically by just making up digital money, running a huge deficit somewhere.
July 14, 2016 at 11:08 am
Scarcity and M” keeps growing. People use debit cards mostly.
July 14, 2016 at 10:10 am
Any news on the Guri dam and the 2007 Edelco modernisation program…
http://www.power-technology.com/projects/gurihydroelectric/
July 14, 2016 at 10:43 am
It rained, wait till next year!
July 13, 2016 at 1:54 pm
“The party of the “people” no longer recognizes who the “people” are.”
Socialism in a nutshell.
July 13, 2016 at 5:15 am
You have to convence lots of folks there which talk about “high inflation”, “very high inflation” persistent inflation” and at the end accept Merentes’ inflation definition, and of course, who manipulating MB (money base) half of it no counted as money base but as BCV assets hold by PDVSA. Many of them bad readers of Cagan (1956) seminal paper about hyperinflation……your analysis is clean, I like it, and everyone there will follow easily..
July 13, 2016 at 2:06 am
Whilst the point about the difficulty in setting prices is interesting, this raises a question about data integrity. Have you been quoting the same areperia all the way through, or selecting in some way?
July 13, 2016 at 6:50 am
Yes, the number above is same arepa, same place, just noting the fact that the second place’s price , always well below this one, went over it. In fact, it is Bs. 2,500 more than 50% higher, used to be 30-40% cheaper. Would make no sense to use two places interchangebly.
July 13, 2016 at 7:20 pm
Miguel you should also put the price of the arepa in UsD using the parallel rate. I would bet it would be flat.
July 13, 2016 at 8:07 pm
Not quite, it started at one dollar and now it is 1.6 dollars
July 17, 2016 at 10:05 am
Probably due to the difficulty in obtaining ingredients in conjunction with the price increases. It surely would have been more if you had brought a scale with you and compared it gram for gram.
July 12, 2016 at 9:37 pm
You’re still in Venezuela and you’re keeping this blog? Isn’t that dangerous? Or does no one in the government read enough English?
July 12, 2016 at 10:09 pm
I go there regularly. It may be dangerous but has to be done, I think the english helps…
July 12, 2016 at 9:20 pm
Since when do communists ever recognize what the “people” want?
July 13, 2016 at 8:28 am
Always!
They say We work for “The People” but they also say “We are the people”. No hidden agenda.