Venezuela Devalues Currency by More Than 40% in Dicom Auction

(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela devalued its Dicom foreign exchange rate by more than 40 percent to 171.67 sovereign bolivars per dollar from 96.84 in an auction on Friday, one day after President Nicolas Maduro ordered a minimum wage increase.

The Dicom rate had moved little since the government’s 95 percent devaluation and redenomination of the currency in August. Venezuela’s economy has collapsed as revenue from oil production has plunged, spurring widespread shortages of food and medicine, and an annual inflation rate of 199,900 percent, according to Bloomberg’s Cafe Con Leche Index.

Maduro ordered a 150 percent increase in the monthly minimum wage, the sixth hike this year, to 4,500 sovereign bolivars from 1,800 on Thursday. The price for the Petro cryptocurrency will rise from 3,600 sovereign bolivars to 9,000, Maduro said.

Maduro has raised the minimum wage 25 times since he took office in 2013, including an August increase to 1,800 bolivars.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jose Orozco in Mexico City at jorozco8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giulia Camillo at gcamillo@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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