Venezuela lops another six zeros off its currency

Maduro regime rolls out ‘digital bolívar’ in latest rebrand amid sky-high inflation and waning usage

Venezuela has lopped six zeros off its currency in another bid to make the bolívar more manageable and rebrand it after years of hyperinflation.

On Friday, new bolívar notes went into circulation, with one new bolívar worth 1m old ones. There are currently around 4.2m old bolívars to the dollar, so one new bolívar is worth about 24 US cents. The new notes range from five to 100 bolívars and there is a 1 bolívar coin.

This is the third time Venezuela’s revolutionary socialist rulers have trimmed the currency. In 2008, president Hugo Chávez cut three zeros from the banknotes and in 2018, amid hyperinflation, his successor and current leader Nicolás Maduro got rid of another five and devalued the currency by 95 per cent.