Inflation in Venezuela Topped 130,000% Last Year - Central Bank Report

CARACAS (Sputnik) - Inflation in Venezuela reached 130,060 percent last year, and was 33.8 percent in April this year, the country's central bank said in its first inflation report in the past three years.

Consumer prices in the country rose by 196.6 percent in January, by 114.4 percent in February and by 34.8 percent in March, the report said.

In 2017, inflation in Venezuela was 862.6 percent, and in 2016 it was 274 percent.

Venezuelan Central Bank published its previous report in 2015, when cumulative annual inflation was 180.9 percent. Since mid-2016, inflation data has been published by the opposition parliament.

The central bank also reported that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2018 fell by 22.5 percent year-on-year.

Earlier in March, a member of the country's opposition-controlled parliament, Jose Guerra, said that the annualized inflation in Venezuela from February 2018 to February 2019 was 2.296 million percent.

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The long-lasting economic crisis in Venezuela has been aggravated by the financial and economic sanctions imposed on the country. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Venezuelan GDP to fall by a quarter in 2019, by another 10 percent next year. The IMF also expects inflation in Venezuela at 10 million percent in 2019 and 2020.