This piece could also be titled, ‘Getting off this road to Zimbabwe’ but Venezuela is an oil-dependent economy, unlike Zimbabwe. Moreover the path Zimbabwe took to hyperinflation was not from the mismanagement of its natural resources but from angst of the West because lands purportedly belonging to whites were seized. How a stupendously oil-rich Venezuela became plagued with a dysfunctional economy is mind-boggling because hyperinflation is a scourge of war-affected countries like Weimar Germany or highly indebted countries like Brazil and Argentina of the 1970s.
Venezuela is not war-torn or highly indebted in foreign currency. So what caused the country’s hyperinflation? Well, the oil got into its head. Unfortunately, this has also been Nigeria’s manner of directing its economy. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world at over 300 billion barrels, larger than Saudi Arabia at 270 billion barrels and Nigeria’s 37 billion barrels…
