CARACAS - Venezuela is abandoning the US dollar and all future transactions on the Venezuelan exchange market will be made in euros, Tareck El Aissami, the country’s vice president for economy, has announced.
The American “financial blockade” of Venezuela affects both the country’s public and private sectors, including pharmacy and agriculture, and shows “just how far the imperialism can go in its madness,” the vice president said.
Venezuela’s floating exchange rate system, Dicom, “will be operating in euro, yuan or any other convertible currency and will allow the foreign exchange market to use any other convertible currency,” El Aissami said.
The government is going to sell 2 billion euros between November and December to allow the public to purchase the European currency “at a real, non-speculative rate,” he said.
Last year, the US imposed sanctions prohibiting trading new debt and equity issued by the Venezuelan government and state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA). The Department of Treasury also introduced several rounds of restrictions against Venezuelan top government officials.
President Nicolas Maduro was among those blacklisted and called it “an honour”.
Venezuela has suffered a severe social and economic crisis in recent years as it was hit by hyperinflation, the devaluation of the national currency and a shortage of basic necessities.
The situation has forced more than 2.3 million to people leave the country this summer in search of better life in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, according to the UN.