Venezuela introduced a new currency which dropped six zeros from its previous currency and made the country’s highest denomination, 100 bolivar, which is worth a little less than $25.
Before the change, Venezuela’s highest denomination was the one million bolivar note, currently worth a little less than $0.25, which will now become the one bolivar note.
The change is meant to make cash transactions and accounting simpler, which are often complicated by a string of unwieldy zeros. The country’s soaring inflation has led banks to limit how much cash individuals could withdraw in one day, and had forced many of the country’s residents to use either the United State dollars or electronic payment methods for as mode of exchange.
The bolivar has lost nearly all its value in the last ten years, shedding almost 73per cent in 2021 alone.
Three out of four Venezuelans currently live in extreme poverty despite receiving a salary of millions of bolivars because the money is worth almost nothing.
This change represents the third time Venezuela’s socialist government have chopped some zeros off the nation’s currency.
The bolivar lost three zeros in 2008 under the late President, Hugo Chavez while his successor, current President Nicolas Maduro, eliminated five zeros in 2018 and now six zero in 2021.
