Spiking inflation, spiraling violence bring Venezuela 'close to the bottom'

Venezuela's economy may have started the year on a much-worse note than the country's legislature thought. The National Assembly, which is led by the opposition to leftist President Nicolas Maduro, said last week that inflation hit nearly 93 percent in the first four months of 2017, but that number might be somewhat conservative. "If you look at the black market and the devaluation of the bolivar against the dollar, [inflation] is probably two to three times higher," said Monica de Bolle, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "The statistical agencies haven't been publishing data for a long time, but you can gauge inflation through the currency exchange rates."More…