New currency in Venezuela with 6 fewer zeros

A new currency with six fewer zeros will debut in Venezuela this Friday as the South American nation continues to experience the world's worst inflation. The upcoming million-to-1 change for the bolivar is the third change of the Venezuelan currency that in the last 15 years.

Since 2007 when the first reconversion took place, the highly devaluated bolivar has lost 14 zeroes. Nowadays, public buses are one of few places where the Bolivar bills are still useful. Many commuters pay a basic fare of 900,000 bolivars that as of tomorrow will be 0.9 bolivars (less than 20 US dollar cents).

"I believe that the only thing that would benefit us would not be carrying so much cash in our pockets," said José Valenzuela, a 46-years-old bus driver.

Jose Manuel Puente, Economy Analyst at the Caracas-based Institute of Administration Superior Studies, said the reconversion could be worse than previous times. "It is due to a process of hyperinflation and now of high and persistent inflation, two tremendous enemies of a monetary reconversion," Puente said.

After more than four years of hyperinflation, many Venezuelans think the new bills will be short-lived as well. The central bank does not publish inflation statistics anymore, but the International Monetary Fund estimates that Venezuela's rate at the end of 2021 will be 5,500%.