Venezuela cuts its currency by 32% in relation to dollar

Venezuela has reduced the value of its currency against the dollar by 32% in an attempt to tackle rampant inflation.

The announcement came after the country’s vice-president Nicolas Maduro’s returned from Cuba with instructions from the hospitalised president Hugo Chavez.

Chavez has not been seen or heard in public since last December, when he flew to Havana for cancer treatment.

The official exchange rate of the bolivar has now increased to 6.3 per dollar, and should bring in extra money for the government.

The measure is also expected to affect inflation in Venezuela, which has already begun rising.