The specter of scarcity awoke in Venezuela after the government announced the return of price controls on more than 40 massconsumption items, a policy that has led to widespread shortages in the past and remains aimed at fighting inflation and speculation.
Faced with a “change in price dynamics,” the government, through the Trade Inspectorate, responded by posting on social media outlining the quantities of flour, sugar, rice and other products to be sold. The message caused an uproar and minutes later it was deleted.
Following this threat, the ruling party MP, Jesús Faría, president of the parliamentary committee on economics and finance, confirmed that the government had adopted “a series of decisions setting maximum retail prices for more than 40 products” without specifying which of them would be affected by this control or when the measure will come into force.
According to economist Litsay Guerrero, researcher at Cedice (Center for the Diffusion of Economic Knowledge), the government is trying to improve the population’s perception of its own management in the face of price increases, which reached 21.9% in November, according to independent estimates.
With this announcement, the socalled Bolivarian Revolution wanted to “send the signal that it wants to take action to solve these problems.”
“The problem is that this is not the way to solve it, these are problems that will not be solved by renewed price control,” the specialist told the EFE agency.