Venezuela’s foreign reserves have dropped by nearly a third to less than $18bn since President Nicolás Maduro took office two years ago.
Central bank reserves this week fell $6.4bn from a 2015 peak of $24.2bn in late February to $17.8bn, according to data from the central bank. This is a fresh 12-year low, according to Bloomberg.
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Amid growing concerns about liquidity, late last month the central bank swapped part of its gold reserves for $1bn in cash through an agreement with Citi. Bank of America said in early April that some $14bn of Venezuela’s total reserves were held in gold.
Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, is reeling from lower crude prices and is unable to overcome severe shortages of basic goods.
Mr Maduro is grappling with an economy expected to shrink 7 per cent this year. Venezuela’s oil basket fell to an average monthly low of $40 per barrel in January, making it increasingly hard for the country to pay for imports and leaving it suffering from chronic shortages of everyday items, such as nappies.
As there is a delay between selling oil, receiving payment for it and importing goods, BancTrust, a boutique investment bank, wrote on Friday: “We are now witnessing the effects of January’s five-year historic lows in oil prices not only on the shelves, but especially on international reserves.”
It added: “We believe this is the reason why the central bank has been making active use of cash from international reserves and other sources, in order to pay foreign suppliers for basic goods that are needed in the country given the actual levels of scarcity.”
Queues at stores are a common sight in Venezuela. Caracas-based consultancy Ecoanalítica estimates that lower government revenues caused by the fall in oil prices cut imports by 22 per cent last year and will trim another 31 per cent this year.
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