Venezuela data offer rare glimpse of economic chaos

Central bank publishes GDP and inflation statistics for first time since 2015

Gideon Long in Bogotá

Inflation hit 130,000 per cent in Venezuela last year, the country’s central bank has said in a rare official acknowledgement that the economy is in meltdown.

In a series of spreadsheets published on its website, the bank said that Venezuelan gross domestic product contracted by 22.5 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018 — the most recent period for which figures were available.