......and here's the story since Jan 1st 2009.
click to enlargeYesterday Bloomberg picked up on the rumour swirling around that Chávez&Co is about to run a dollar bonds issuance. Bloomie reported a strengthening of the parallel VEF but I don't see much more than a slight stopping of the rot. Not surprising really, as the rumoured U$1Bn or $2Bn issuance won't soak up much of the excess liquidity floating round the VEF. Check out the evolution of M2 to see what I mean....
.....because this chart documents M2 having risen 32.5% since this time last year. Want a lesson in Monetary Inflation 101? Well, as mentioned before it's no coincidence that Venezuela's CPI inflation rate is fluctuating around 30% right now. This ain't rocket science, dudes.So the upshot is that although oil is back at $70+ and the rrrrrrevolution is back on track funds-wise, the VEF currency has a long way to go to get itself repaired. My finger-in-the-air thinks that we'd need crude at $100/bbl again before the VEF parallel goes under 5.0 to the greenback.