Inflation-hit Venezuela to print bigger bills [View all]

[Zorro]

Venezuela's government will begin printing larger-denominated bank notes sometime this year, a top finance official said, as runaway inflation has eroded the value of the nation's biggest bill to less than a U.S. dime on the black market.

Central Bank President Nelson Merentes' comments in an interview Monday with The Associated Press were the first confirmation that Venezuela is preparing to print larger bills, something that had been rumored for months.

Market economists have said bigger bills will only accelerate inflation that last year hit 181 percent — the highest in the world.

Merentes, who has helped steer the economy for more than a decade as finance minister and then as head of the central bank, disagreed. He said that far from generating panic among inflation-wary Venezuelans the new bills will reduce price pressures "because you're going to have less bills circulating."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ap-interview-inflation-hit-venezuela-050146566.html

The solution to rampant, runaway inflation? Why, print larger denomination bills, of course! Look out Zimbabwe!