Venezuela's inflation-battered bolivar loses 6 zeroes

With the bolivar losing nearly all its value, seven one-million bolivar notes -- which are very hard to come by -- were needed to pay for one loaf of bread before Friday's currency change.
The government has issued new banknotes in denominations of five, 10, 20, 50, and 100 bolivars, as well as a one-bolivar coin, but has said that it wants the economy to become entirely digital.
Analysts read this as a way to avoid printing money that will just continue devaluing, eventually requiring another readjustment.
The official exchange rate of the Venezuelan bolivar went from 4.18 million to the US dollar overnight to just 4.18 as the impoverished country slashed six zeroes off its inflation-battered currency Friday to simplify transactions.
It is the third banknote reform in 13 years, with 14 zeroes shed since 2008 -- giving Venezuela the dubious distinction of becoming the South American country to have lopped the most zeroes off its currency.
"Everything expressed in national currency shall be divided by a million", the central bank announced.
The once-rich oil producer is battling its eighth year of recession and hyperinflation that reached nearly 3,000 percent in 2020 and more than 9,500 percent the year before, according to central bank figures.
Economic consultancy Ecoanalitica expects the 2021 figure to come in at around 1,600.
In May, the government tripled the minimum monthly wage but the new amount was not enough even to buy a kilogram of meat.
Three in four Venezuelans today live in extreme poverty, according to a recent study, with the economic crisis made worse by US sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic.
Millions have left the country in recent years to try their luck elsewhere.