Economic crises looms over Venezuela as inflation reaches 720%

Inflation is expected to hit 720 per cent this year, the highest in the world, making Venezuela reminiscent of Zimbabwe at the start of its collapse.
In the capital, water is so expensive and scarce that residents wait for hours with bottles at the side of a mountain where it trickles out onto the highway.

In the countryside, sugar cane fields rot and milk factories lay idle, even as people carry bags of money around to buy food on the black market in every city and town.
Shops in malls across Venezuela have closed their doors early to comply with a government electricity rationing order.

Venezuela’s socialist government is asking more than 100 malls to close or generate their own power four hours each day, from 1pm to 3pm and from 7pm to 9pm.

Dozens of mall workers and would-be shoppers waited out the closure at a shopping center in upscale Caracas Wednesday. They complained about the new policy, which comes amid a general economic breakdown that has led to chronic shortages and triple-digit inflation.