This trick did not work and the strong
bolivar continued to decline so much that ten years later, in August 2018, Maduro tried the same trick by removing five zeroes, so that 1,000,000
bolivars became 10.Maduro called this third currency the sovereign
bolivar (boliacutevar soberano).
The Venezuela central bank, which is battling hyperinflation in the nation, has launched an Android app that helps citizens to calculate how many new sovereign
bolivar units they possess.
Gustavo Diaz, who works at Home Depot, heads up, in his spare time, an Internet site called DolarToday, which uses a scanning program to add up the requests by its 800,000 unique daily visitors to exchange the
bolivar for other currencies or for goods such as soap, prescription drugs, and the like.
Venezuelan security forces have arrested more than 300 people, including members of the opposition Popular Will and Justice First parties, in protests sparked by the elimination of the country's most popular currency, the 100
bolivar note, before new notes were ready, President Nicolas Maduro said Sunday.
Venezuela's government informed airlines that airfares starting in July will be based on a weaker SICAD II rate of about 50
bolivars per dollar compared with the official rate of 6.3, Humberto Figuera, president of the Venezuelan Airlines Association, said.
Venezuelan authorities also offered to settle its debts with AeroMexico, Insel Air, Tame Ecuador and Aruba at about 10
bolivars to the dollar, he said.
While those controls have restricted the amounts of dollars available at the official rate, an illegal black market has flourished and the value of the
bolivar has recently been eroding.
Finally, the importer is allowed to purchase dollars with
bolivars at the low official rate, which the Central Bank transfers directly to the foreign exporter.
New banknotes of up to 20,000
bolivars in value were due to go into circulation on Thursday, replacing the 100
bolivar note as the highest value note.
The apex bank is said to be looking to expand the supply of
bolivars at the weaker of the two official exchange rates, a move that could attract more US dollars into the economy.
