Venezuelan gas: $0.002 per black-market U.S. dollar

CARACAS , Venezuela, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Currency devaluations have led the Venezuelan economy to the point that 482 gallons of gas can be purchased with one black-market U.S. dollar.

The calculation, by Bloomberg News, indicates a gallon of gas can be bought with 0.2 U.S. cents, because of the country's 64 percent annual inflation rate; regular devaluation, since 2012, of the currency, the bolivar; the fall in the price of oil, and gasoline prices unchanged in 20 years. Keeping gasoline prices low has long been a feature of government policy of the oil-rich nation, designed to keep protests, such as one in 1989 after a gas price increase, at bay.

The official value of a bolivar is 6.30 per dollar.

Venezuela depends on oil sales for 96 percent of its economy, up from 80 percent in 1999, when former president Hugo Chavez came to power. Approval ratings of the current president, Nicolas Maduro, are in the low 20 percent range, and protests, such as those that paralyzed Venezuela a year ago, have begun to surface.

"They are basically bankrupt," said Siobhan Modren, Jeffries LLC head of Latin American strategy, told Bloomberg News.

A speech by Maduro on Jan. 21 offered few concrete plans, except that "God will provide," a signal to citizens the country's economic problems are being avoided by the government.

Maduro also referred to Venezuela's low gas prices as a "distortion," and hinted they could be raised.

A woman standing in line to purchase diapers and other essentials, Marvelis Bazque, told the Christian Science Monitor, "We have confidence in God but not so much Maduro. He is to blame for all this." Most items sold in Venezuela are imported, and standing in line outside stores has become part of the cultural landscape.