Venezuelans, already experiencing severe shortages of food and other consumer goods amid the country's worst economic crisis, are likely to feel even more pain as the year unfolds, the International Monetary Fund grimly predicts. The South American country is \u201con a path to hyperinflation,\u201d with economic activity \u201cprojected to contract sharply \u2026 while inflation is expected to accelerate further,\u201d Alejandro Werner, the IMF's Western Hemisphere director, wrote in the organization's latest outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean. Contributing factors include a large and growing deficit, \u201cextensive economic distortions, and a severe restriction on the availability of imports of intermediate goods,\u201d Werner wrote in the assessment posted Monday on an IMF website. Maduro taps Sanguino to lead Central Bank In an attempt to reverse Venezuela's declining fortunes, President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro on Monday announced he'd appointed political ally and economist Ricardo Sanguino to lead the country's Central Bank. Sanguino is a member of the ruling United Socialist Party. He replaced Nelson Merentes, who resigned Friday. The mathematician had investors' confidence until he oversaw \u201ca massive expansion of the money supply that helped drive inflation to a reported 800 percent\u201d last year, Reuters news agency reported. Economist Jesus Casique told VOA it's hard to gauge the exact rates of inflation or economic contraction because the central bank \u201chas the figures locked.\u201d He suggested that by keeping such data secret, \u201cthe Central Bank of Venezuela has been repeatedly violating the constitution of the republic.\u201d The country's extensive oil reserves made it Latin America's richest nation in the 1970s. But with the 2014 collapse of oil prices, consumer costs and crime have surged. An Associated Press expos\u00e9 last month found evidence that Venezuela's military — which Maduro had put in charge of food distribution — was profiting by seizing and reselling rice, corn flour and other staples at exorbitant rates. Call for sanctions Several members of the U.S. Congress this week are calling for U.S. sanctions against the food traffickers, including Venezuelan officials, the AP reported. Opponents of Maduro's administration took to the streets of Caracas on Monday, the anniversary of dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez' 1958 removal and a restored democracy, to demand regional elections and a referendum on recalling Maduro. The president's supporters also staged countermarches. VOA Latin America division's Carol Guensburg contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Venezuelans, already experiencing severe shortages of food and other consumer goods amid the country's worst economic crisis, are likely to feel even more pain as the year unfolds, the International Monetary Fund grimly predicts. The South American country is \u201con a path to hyperinflation,\u201d with economic activity \u201cprojected to contract sharply \u2026 while inflation is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}