CARACAS — Venezuela nearly tripled its minimum wage Saturday but inflation is so outrageous that that amount of money will not even buy a kilo of meat.
Labor Minister Eduardo Pinate announced the raise to government supporters at a May Day rally in Caracas.
The new monthly minimum wage is seven million bolivares, which is equivalent to $2.50. A kilo (2.2 pounds) of meat in Venezuela costs about $3.75.
The once-wealthy oil producer is enduring its fourth year of hyperinflation and its eighth year of recession.
Venezuela is now in the worst economic crisis of its modern history. Inflation is so bad that the everyday economy now works mainly in dollars.
The leftist gove…
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