Venezuela to Limit Medicine Prices After Chavez Devaluation [View all]

[naaman fletcher]

Prediction: 60 days from now there will be a shortage of medicines.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-14/venezuela-to-limit-medicine-prices-in-wake-of-chavez-devaluation.html

Venezuela will cap prices on essential medicines after President Hugo Chavez, who is undergoing “complex” cancer treatments in Cuba, ordered a 32 percent devaluation of the bolivar.

The government ordered the country’s price controls agency to submit a report “to establish maximum prices” within two weeks, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on state television yesterday. The decision was made at a meeting of the economic team during the Carnival holiday this week, he said.

“We will establish the maximum prices for the people’s essential medicines and control them strictly so the medicine is available in all the establishments,” Maduro said.

Chavez, who hasn’t been seen or heard from publicly since arriving in Havana on Dec. 10 for cancer surgery, ordered his government to weaken the exchange rate by 32 percent to 6.3 bolivars per dollar starting yesterday. The devaluation, announced Feb. 8, spurred Venezuelans to shop for everything from televisions to airline tickets before prices climbed.