Almost a year ago, the Venezuelan government released the new currency to be used starting this year named "Bolivar Fuerte" or Strong Bolivar versus the currently used (weak?) Bolivar. With the introduction of the new currency it was only fitting for the old and current Bolivar to hit a new low on the black market exchange of $6000 Bs. per $1 US or $6 Bolivar Fuerte per $1 US.
In January of 2007 the black market exchange was around $3,800 per $1 US, in other words the Bolivar has lost ~63% of its value in 10 months. Now I'm not totally opposed to the removal of zeros from the currency since for years people have unofficially been removing them. For example if you go to a store and the item costs $1000 they will often just say one bolivar. What is wrong is that the government is advertising the "new Bolivar Fuerte" as more stable when in fact the only thing that will have changed is the number of zeros and the pictures. Whether the Bs per US $ goes from 3,800 to $6,000 or 3.8 to 6 the currency still loses 63% of it's value, so in reality nothing changes.
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