Economist Pedro Palma affirms that «there are no indications of the return of scarcity» to Venezuela

Economist Pedro Palma, an ecoanalithic socio-director, explained that the application of 25 % tariffs against third parties that buy Venezuelan oil products will intensify the scarcity of currencies and raise inflation in the country.

For the specialist, this new dynamic will make work difficult to the State to maintain the stable exchange market if it continues to apply the same exchange policy.

«There will be less currencies. That implies an elevation in its price. Yesterday, the currency in the parallel went to Bs. 95, a 19 % increase in one day. Now it goes back down, but there are those reactions because the expectation is that the dollars will scarce and there will be inflationary pressures, ”he said in an interview for the Circuit Successes of Unión Radio.

In recent months, the Government has injected banks from banks to keep the exchange rate stable, but the new decisions emanating from Washington against Caracas have generated an immediate impact on the economy

«As much as the BCV forces to establish a price, there is a 39 % difference between the official market and the parallel. Prices are established according to replacement costs and that cost is influenced by the free market that is the dollar that everyone has access ».

Despite this negative context, Palma indicated that there are no indications of a new episode of scarcity as the occurred between 2013 and 2018.

«At that time there was a very strict, distorted and corrupted change control. The only way to buy dollars to import was to buy it from the Venezuelan exchange authority … That is not raised now, because there is the option to buy currencies in the parallel, but at a much higher price and the prices will be more expensive«, argument.

The economist assured that this strategy of Chavismo to keep the price of the dollar anchored with the massive sale of currencies is wrong.

“The worst thing can do an economy is to try to stabilize prices anchoring the exchange rate. To succeed you must have many dollars, a great international reserve important to give you that luxury and lower costs from abroad. If you have no reservations, you lower the flow of dollars and you do not have access to the international financial community. Where will you get the dollars? You will stabilize it for a while, but it will burst as it happened last October«, He concluded.