“piece of candy cannot cost more than a liter of gasoline”

Gasoline is so heavily subsidized in Venezuela that one US cent buys about five gallons, costing the government as much as 12 dollars billion annually and spurring a lucrative business in smuggling fuel across the border to neighboring Colombia. The announcement follows the release by the Venezuelan Central bank that the inflation rate reached 68.5% in 2014, the highest in Latin America, with consumer prices rising 5.3% in the month of December. More…