Venezuela’s inflation hits world’s highest level at 475%

Venezuelan inflation soared to 475 per cent in 2025, the highest in the world, driven by a tightening of United States sanctions in the lead-up to the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro.

Figures released by Venezuela’s central bank on Friday, March 6, 2026, showed that full-year inflation far exceeded the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of 269.9 per cent.

Accumulated inflation for the first two months of 2026 stood at nearly 52 percent, the bank, which had not released inflation figures in over a year, said.

It did not issue a forecast for the remainder of 2026.

Venezuela’s economy was hammered last year by United States President Donald Trump’s campaign of maximum pressure on longtime foe Maduro.

The United States eventually deposed the authoritarian socialist leader on January 3 in a US special forces’ raid on Caracas and has since eased sanctions.

Washington and Caracas have vowed to resume full diplomatic ties and jointly develop the country’s vast oil and mineral reserves as part of a lightning-fast thaw after years of emnity.

But many Venezuelans say they have yet to see the results on exorbitant prices for basic goods like food and medicine.

“I have to hop from one supermarket to another. It shouldn’t be like this,” a 58-year-old accountant, Alix Aponte, told AFP as she shopped for vegetables in Caracas on Friday, calling for salary increases.

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Average incomes range between $100 and $300 per month, far below what Venezuelans need to meet their basic food needs, economists say.

Food and drink prices alone rose by 532 per cent in 2025, while rent increased by 340 per cent and healthcare by 445 per cent, the central bank said.

“This inflation is killing us,” said a leader of the teachers’ union, Eduardo Sanchez, blaming poor economic policies.

Before Maduro’s ouster, economists had warned of a return of hyperinflation – monthly price hikes of 50 per cent or more that caused economic chaos between 2017 and 2021.

Memories are still acute of a record 130,000 per cent year-on-year rise in prices recorded in 2018, the peak of the hyperinflationary period, which pushed millions to emigrate.

At the time people waited in line for hours to buy a half kilo of coffee or sugar.

By 2024, the figure had fallen to 48 percent – a turnaround credited largely to the economic management of Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez, now the country’s acting leader.

The Star