Venezuela’s parliament is examining a proposal to officially adopt the US dollar as the national currency, backed by opposition deputy Antonio Ecarri and American economist Steve Hanke. This initiative comes as annual inflation has exceeded 500 % according to private estimates, in a country that experienced one of the worst hyperinflation episodes in modern history. The ruling Chavismo bloc countered by removing Ecarri from the presidency of the Venezuela-United States Parliamentary Friendship Group and launching a formal parliamentary investigation against him. However, Venezuela has already been functionally dollarized since roughly 2018: prices are quoted in dollars, rents are collected in dollars, and the bolívar has become practically irrelevant in daily transactions. Multiple monetary reconversions (2008, 2018, 2021) failed to stabilize the national currency, which lost nearly 100 % of its value over a five-year span. Critics point to key risks: permanent surrender of monetary sovereignty and the lack of tools to respond to economic contractions during deflationary cycles, though Ecuador successfully dollarized in 2000.
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