Prez Maduro gives new year gift to Venezuelans: Hikes 40% in minimum wages

Caracas, January 1: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a 40 percent increase to the minimum wage as of January, a move that will foment what many economists already consider hyperinflation in the oil-rich but crisis-stricken nation.

Venezuelans will now earn some 797,510 bolivars a month, factoring in food tickets, or just over $7 on the widely used black market index. Millions will still be unable to afford three meals a day, while the increase is likely to stoke inflation further.

In his televised year-end address, leftist Maduro said the new wage level would protect workers against what he calls Washington’s “economic war” to sabotage socialism.

 

President Nicolas Maduro announced the wage increase in his end-of-year address. He said the move would "protect workers" from what he called an economic war on the socialist nation by the United States and others. Earlier this year, the US imposed sanctions on President Maduro, labelling him "a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people."

Most economists say the government is, in fact, fomenting a vicious cycle in a country already wrestling with the world's fastest inflation.

To counter those price increases, Maduro has been raising the minimum wage, but quickening inflation coupled with a depreciating bolivar currency has plunged millions into poverty.