One reason for optimism among banknote printers are the basket-case economies of countries like Venezuela. In the
can-you-say-"hyperinflation"? department, last month The Wall Street Journal reported that the government is relying on
"massive imports of bills from foreign printing companies to keep economy going" -Editor
Millions of pounds of provisions, stuffed into three-dozen 747 cargo planes, arrived here from countries around the world in recent months
to service Venezuela’s crippled economy.
But instead of food and medicine, the planes carried another resource that often runs scarce here: bills of Venezuela’s currency, the
bolivar.
The shipments were part of the import of at least five billion bank notes that President Nicolás Maduro’s administration
authorized over the latter half of 2015 as the government boosts the supply of the country’s increasingly worthless currency, according to
seven people familiar with the deals.
And the Venezuelan government isn’t finished. In December, the central bank began secret negotiations to order 10 billion more bills,
five of these people said, which would effectively double the amount of cash in circulation. That order alone is well above the eight
billion notes the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank each print annually—dollars and euros that unlike bolivars are used
world-wide.
Four spokesmen from Venezuela’s central bank didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
Economists say the purchases could exacerbate Venezuela’s economic meltdown: injecting large numbers of freshly printed notes is likely
to stoke inflation, which the International Monetary Fund estimates will this year hit 720%, the world’s highest rate.
To read the complete article, see:
Inflation-Racked Venezuela
Orders Bank Notes by the Planeload (www.wsj.com/articles/inflation-wrought-venezuela-orders-bank-notes-by-the-planeload-1454538101)
THE BOOK BAZARRE
RENAISSANCE OF AMERICAN COINAGE: Wizard Coin Supply is the official distributor for Roger Burdette's three volume
series that won NLG Book of the Year awards for 2006, 2007 and 2008. Contact us for dealer or distributor pricing at www.WizardCoinSupply.com .
Wayne Homren, Editor
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