The U.S. dollar is now the currency of choice in day-to-day transactions in Venezuela’s hyperinflation-ravaged economy. Even the socialist leader Nicolas Maduro has grudgingly accepted its role.
But that doesn’t mean that Maduro is ready to give up on the country’s own currency, the bolivar, just yet. His government has turned to a state-owned money printer in Russia to purchase 300 million new bolivar bills. The notes will carry denominations ranging from 10,000 ($0.14) to 50,000 bolivars ($0.68), according to a copy of the contract between Goznak, as the printer is called, and Venezuela’s central bank signed in November and obtained by Bloomberg News.
