Devaluation in Venezuela economy and current shortfall

On Friday February 8 the government of Venezuela devalued the currency a 46.5 %, bringing the Venezuelan bolivar to BSF 6.3/US$ ( BSF: strong bolivars); in the parallel market, or black, the dollar was quoted at almost BSF 19. When Chavez took power, the exchange rate was in BSF 0.56/US$, so that in nominal terms the devaluation was higher than 1000 %. However, in real terms, the bolivar is appreciation, because the accumulated inflation between December 1998 and December of 2012 was almost 1500 %. According to Cepal, at the end of 2012 the Venezuelan currency was appreciated a 44.5 per cent over the average 1999-2009. Only in 2012 inflation was 21 %, in both the official exchange rate remained stable in bs 4.3 /US$.