After the Maduro government stepped down, Venezuela is still mired in inflation. (AFP file photo)
Venezuela’s inflation rate has exceeded 600% this year
[Financial Channel/Comprehensive Report] The U.S. military raided Venezuela in January this year and arrested then-President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration promised at the time that Venezuela would usher in economic prosperity as Maduro stepped down, but the reality was that it fell into a quagmire of inflation.
Long before the United States overthrew the Maduro regime, Venezuela's inflation rate remained high under tough sanctions, reaching 475% in 2025, the highest in the world. After Maduro was arrested, Venezuela's oil has been under the supervision of Washington. Oil production fell by 21% in January to 780,000 barrels per day. The sudden drop in exports directly restricted the inflow of dollars that the people desperately needed, further pushing up price pressure. The annual inflation rate soared to 617.9% in February this year and reached a high of 649.5% in March.
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For Venezuelans, who have suffered for years from poor socialist governance and punitive U.S.-led sanctions, the economic prosperity they hoped for is out of reach. Even as oil tycoons and investment banks head to Caracas in search of investment opportunities, ordinary people in the capital have to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet.
After Maduro was arrested, Venezuela's annual inflation rate once reached a high of 649.5%. (AP file photo)
People need to work 3 jobs to make ends meet
Although inflation has slowed slightly recently, according to data from the Central Bank of Venezuela, in September this year, Venezuela’s inflation rate was still 465.5% higher than the same period last year. From January to August, the inflation rate exceeded 500%, and once reached nearly 650%, which is one of the highest inflation rates in the world. Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, raised the monthly minimum income to US$240 (approximately NT$7,674) in the summer, but this is only a drop in the bucket for ordinary families to make ends meet.
Berta Say, a 55-year-old nurse, said bluntly that she could not see any changes and said that she had to work several odd jobs while taking care of patients and selling cakes to afford the rent, water and Internet bills.
He participated in demonstrations in May this year to protest against the government's insufficient salary increase. Sai said that the people had persisted for several months. Everyone was full of hope that change was coming, but everything was still the same, hunger and suffering still existed.
Venezuelan oil production has hovered around 1 million barrels per day, well below the more than 3.2 million barrels per day in the late 1990s. (European News Agency file photo)
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world
Venezuela’s oil reserves exceed 300 billion barrels, ranking first in the world. However, the rich oil reserves have not brought much economic benefits and people's happiness to this country.
As the United States loosened controls, Venezuela's oil exports gradually rose to the highest level in seven years, and dollars obtained from oil sales began to flow back into the economy, helping to stabilize the exchange rate and narrow the gap between the official exchange rate and the black market exchange rate. The Trump administration has relaxed controls on Venezuela’s central bank and some state-owned banks. The International Monetary Fund has been negotiating with the Venezuelan government again since 2019.
But after Maduro stepped down, investment has barely flowed in. Since January this year, the country's oil production has hovered around 1 million barrels per day. Although it is higher than 500,000 barrels after U.S. sanctions began to take effect in 2020, it is far lower than the daily output of more than 3.2 million barrels in the late 1990s.
Most of the new oil transactions and contracts are conducted in secret. The U.S. Treasury Department is injecting dollars into the Venezuelan economy, but it is difficult to know the specific details of how much money has been injected, how the funds are used, and what preferences the companies have received.
A Venezuelan investment banker said that investors from all over the world came to Caracas to take advantage of this wave. They wanted to hype Venezuela's recovery story. Some people had unrealistic expectations and hoped to buy goods at extremely low prices. Some people thought that Venezuela would be like Ukraine after the war or Cuba after the collapse of the regime. Most people left without signing a contract.
The investment banker pointed out that M&A transactions take at least six months to complete, so he believes that there may be very few people who can reach the last mile this year.
In June this year, Venezuela suffered the strongest earthquake of the century. (AFP file photo)
June earthquake hits economy hard
In June this year, Venezuela suffered the strongest earthquake in more than a century, which was even worse for the country. A natural disaster of this scale has severely hit people's fragile hopes for economic recovery. Due to years of economic recession and insufficient investment in public services, Venezuela's infrastructure, from hospitals to electricity and water resources, is unable to cope with such crises.
Two consecutive earthquakes caused more than 6,000 deaths. The United Nations estimated that the direct material losses caused by the earthquakes were as high as US$37 billion (approximately NT$1.18 trillion), of which US$24 billion (approximately NT$767.040 billion) were lost to buildings, including houses, businesses, schools, hospitals and public facilities, and another US$13 billion (approximately NT$415.480 billion) were lost to infrastructure.
After the earthquake, early models from the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that overall economic losses could range from US$10 billion (approximately NT$319.6 billion) to US$100 billion (approximately NT$3.19 trillion). The high mark is equivalent to the size of Venezuela's entire economy.
Large numbers of people take to the streets in Venezuela every day to demonstrate. As of the end of September, there had been nearly 4,200 demonstrations this year. (Reuters photo)
Venezuela is currently in a period of transformation led by the United States. The priority of transformation can be stability and economic recovery, which can be achieved through oil investment. However, the Venezuelan people have not yet felt the benefits of these investments.
The Venezuelan people are not "singing and dancing in the streets" as Trump said a few months ago. Instead, large numbers of people take to the streets every day to protest against living difficulties and violations of human rights, and demand government replacement through elections. This is one of the main demands of the people after the 2024 election fraud.
Venezuela's promised political transition, months after Maduro's arrest, seems to be dragging on longer and longer, sending people back to the streets. According to statistics, in 2025, there will only be about 160 demonstrations in Venezuela, and by the end of September in 2026, there will be close to 4,200 demonstrations. In August alone, there were more than 650 protests, an average of 22 per day, of which nearly 1/3 were initiated due to power outages.
Large numbers of people have held demonstrations across Venezuela. Their demands include higher wages, an election timetable, the release of people detained for political reasons, and the return of the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner to Caracas.
Union leader Carlos Salazar said the demands they insist on taking to the streets include decent wages and pensions, which have been frozen for years and largely replaced by bonuses, the restoration of basic public services and an end to the ban on the return of opposition leader María Corina Machado. It is hoped that a presidential election will be held in December this year and that all political prisoners will be released.
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