The price of the dollar increased its value in Venezuela about 6,381,800 times in 2018, going from the 10 bolivares per unit in which it was quoted in the official market last January to 638.18 - or 63,818,000 before the monetary reconversion that suppressed 5 zeros to the local.
The Central Bank (BCV) reported this rate, product of the last currency auction, which will have value until next Wednesday, January 2, 2019, when a new bid designates a new value.
The notable increase in the price of the dollar is another confirmation of the acute economic crisis that Venezuela suffers, which is expressed in widespread shortages, hyperinflation and a drop in GDP of more than 50 percent in the last 5 years, according to Parliament's calculations.
The current official rate, in addition, almost equals that of the illegal parallel currency market, one that the government of Nicolás Maduro has promised to destroy by accusing him of the ills of the South American country's economy.
Likewise, the minimum wage in force in Venezuela, of 4,500 bolivares, the norm in the public administration and which some 4,000,000 workers earn, went to only $ 7.05 a month after the auction.
Since 2003, a strict exchange control has been in place in Venezuela, which reserves to the State the allocation of foreign currency, which is necessary for the importation of most of the goods consumed by the population.
This system of changes, criticized by businessmen and opponents, has undergone several modifications in its 15 years of operation, but has never softened its mechanisms.
Currently, Venezuelans access the currencies through a cumbersome auction system known as Dicom, which however does not guarantee the allocation of the same.
Dicom was relaunched last August in the framework of Maduro's economic recovery program, and then its rate was 60 bolivars per dollar.