Venezuela Hikes Minimum Wage By 50% "Due To Economic War And Mafia Attacks"

With (hyper)inflation expected to hit 1,660% this year and 2,880% next, Venezuela's President Maduro hiked the minimum wage another 50% on Sunday, the fifth increase in the past year (for a total annualized increase of 536%), to help shield workers from 'economic war'.

As Reuters reports, the measure puts the minimum monthly salary at 40,683 bolivars - about $60 at the weakest exchange level under the state's currency controls, or $12 at the black market rate.

"To start the year, I have decided to raise salaries and pensions," he said on his weekly TV and radio program.

"In times of economic war and mafia attacks ... we must protect employment and workers' income," added Maduro, who has now increased the minimum wage by a cumulative 322 percent since February 2016.

The 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez attributes Venezuela's three-year recession, soaring prices and product shortages to a plunge in global oil prices since mid-2014 and an "economic war" by political foes and hostile businessmen.

But critics say his incompetence, and 17 years of failed socialist policies, are behind Venezuela's economic mess.

They say the constant minimum wage hikes symbolize Maduro's policy failures and fail to keep pace with real on-the-street price rises.

Fox News also notes that Venezuela's biggest employer, Fedecamaras, said that the pay increase was announced "without consultation" by the government and could reduce employment and result in the closure of companies that cannot deal with the hike.

And while the black market Bolivar rallied briefly as the bank-note ban debacle was put in place, the currency's street worth is collapsing once again...

But, as The Washington Post reports, while the government has been able to censor the country’s main newspapers, so you won’t read much about crime in the media, death is one of the few guaranteed things you can find in Venezuela.