CARACAS: Prices keep rising in Venezuela, economic activity is sputtering and shops struggle to fill their shelves.
But don't ask the central bank how bad things really are: it hasn't published key data in months.
The last time the central bank and the national statistics institute published the annual inflation figure was in May, when the indicator rose to 61 percent, the highest in Latin America.
Officials have not given any explanations despite repeated requests from economists, politicians and journalists seeking economic data.
"This destroys the credibility of the central bank. There has never been this kind of a delay for as long as we have been measuring inflation," said economist Jose Guerra, a former economic research chief at the bank.
A similar delay took place late last year, when the government of socialist President Nicolas Maduro waited one month to release November data, until after municipal elections.
"The government has not wanted to make June and July inflation figures public," Guerra said, citing data from central bank technicians.
Comments
Comments are closed.