In 1964, the average Venezuelan's GDP was 68.9 percent. level of Americans and in South America it was nowhere better. And now? According to IMF estimates for last year, it was only 3.2%.
Starvation wages in Venezuela
Although Venezuela has the largest identified oil reserves in the world, it the average Venezuelan receives on average the equivalent of about $230-240. monthly salary. In the best years of the Chavez era, 1999-2000, it was about $400. Later it gradually dropped to $50. in 2015, two years after Chavez's death, when his successor Nicolas Maduro was already in power.
Maduro's assumption of power slightly improved the situation and wages gradually rose to the above-mentioned $240. last year For a Pole, surviving on such money may seem impossible.
And Venezuelans have a problem with this too. According to a 2021 survey of humanitarian organizations. as much as 94 percent Venezuela's population does not have sufficient income to purchase necessary goods and servicesand over 30 percent are forced to take up low-income informal work to meet basic needs, including access to food.
Price level in Venezuela
All this with the reservation that price levels are different in Venezuela, the USA and Poland. Taking into account IMF calculations (PPP – purchasing power parity) and the bolivar exchange rate against the dollar at the end of last year. can be estimated that prices in Venezuela are at 25%. those in the US and 47 percent prices in Poland.
This would mean that to compare the real Venezuelan salary to the Polish one we have to multiply by two, and in the case of comparison with Americans – by four. In other words, to compare with Poles, Venezuelans earn on average about $500, i.e. PLN 1,800 net per month. This is half less than the current minimum wage in Poland (PLN 3,606 net per month with an employment contract).
However, many products are more expensive there. According to Numbeo you have to pay PLN 7.65 for a liter of milk in Caracas, and in Warsaw it is PLN 4.19, although it is often sold for less than PLN 2 in promotions. A resident of Caracas will pay PLN 9.3 for a half-kilogram loaf of bread, and for potatoes PLN 8.21 per kg.
However, they have much cheaper gasolinewhich is understandable in an oil country. In Caracas you pay only PLN 2.1 per liter, i.e. one third of what in Warsaw. Meat is also cheaper by 46% and tomatoes by 39%. and rice by 24%, a they pay only 5% for electricity, heating, water and garbage collection in the Venezuelan capital. what the people of Warsaw do.
Hyperinflation in Venezuela is here to stay
All this though in an environment of hyperinflationcharacteristic of countries managed in a similar way, i.e. socialist and disconnected from the world economy. By 2010, inflation erased any previous wage increases.
Until 2014, it was the highest in the world and amounted to 69 percent. In 2016, the IMF estimated the Venezuelan inflation rate at 500%. A year later it was as much as 4,000 percent. During the 2017 holiday season, some stores stopped using price tags because prices rose so quickly that customers had to ask staff how much each item cost.
The next peak of inflation was in February 2019, when it reached as much as 345%. annually. In 2024, it dropped to 47 percent, but Last year, the IMF forecasts that it reached 549%.and in 2026 it is expected to be 629%. Since the state's obligations are met through printing, and they increase along with the economic crisis, it cannot be otherwise.
The bolivar loses with inflation
The bolivar exchange rate falls in line with inflation. Back in 2000, the exchange rate was 1 bolivar for 1 dollar. A year later it was 4.50 bolivars, and two years later it was 17.4 dollars. Currently, it is 304 bolivars to one dollar.
Bolívar quotations against the dollar
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Investing.com
Therefore, a Venezuelan's trip abroad is an undertaking that some people remember from the times of the Polish People's Republic, when Poles could go to the West.
It is hardly surprising that in such circumstances Venezuelans flee the country. In mid-2025, there were nearly 7.9 million Venezuelans in emigration, and in 10 years their number increased by 7.2 million. For comparison, the country has a total of 30 million inhabitants.
Author: Jacek Frączyk, editor of Business Insider Polska
