Venezuela's plan to fight runaway inflation lacks key ingredients | Larry Elliott

Nicolis Maduro's emergency package to tackle the problem looks doomed to fail

Countries suffering from an inflationary problem fall into three categories: the ones that have a sharply rising cost of living; the ones gripped by hyperinflation; and the ones where things are so bad comparisons are made with Germany in 1923. With the International Monetary Fund predicting that inflation will hit 1,000,000% by the end of the year, Venezuela falls into the third category.

It wasn't always this way. Venezuela has the highest oil reserves in the world and could once boast of being one of the richest countries in Latin America. Poverty levels were more than halved under the former president, Hugo Chivez, and there was bountiful public investment in health and education.

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