Venezuela boosts minimum wage by 50 percent

Embattled President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday raised the minimum wage by 50 percent in Venezuela, a country with astronomical inflation. Maduro said he was raising the minimum wage to 40 bolivars, about 60 dollars at the highest official exchange rate, or $12 on the black market. "To get the year started, I have decided to raise the minimum wage," the president sad on his weekly show on state television.
The wage comes with an additional food bonus of about 93 dollars, which did not change. Venezuela grapples with the world's highest inflation rate - set to hit 475 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. As the Latin American country flounders through a devastating economic crisis, inflation has gutted the value of the bolivar.