Banco Central de Venezuela
| Headquarters | Caracas , Venezuela |
| founding | September 8, 1939 |
| country | Venezuela |
| currency | |
| ISO 4217 | VES |
| Currency reserves | US $ 7.976 billion (October 2019) |
| Website | |
| List of central banks | |
The Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) is the central bank of Venezuela , based in Caracas . It has maintained a fixed exchange rate for the Venezuelan bolívar since 1996.
history
In 1937, Venezuelan President Eleazar López Contreras appointed a commission headed by Manuel Egaña , his future Minister for Development , to examine the functioning and regulation of central banks in North and South America. This commission submitted a bill that was finally approved by the Venezuelan Congress on September 8, 1939. This law approved the establishment of the Central Bank of Venezuela. The Banco Central de Venezuela began operating on October 15, 1940.
Since its inception, the BCV has received a clear mandate to oversee the nation's monetary policy by centralizing the operations of a handful of private banks that formerly minted Venezuela's currency, the bolivar. For nearly 50 years, the BCV was able to hold a remarkably strong currency, with inflation rates hovering around 2% to 3% during that period. However, since the oil glut in the 1980s and the first serious devaluation of the currency in 1983 (known as "Viernes Negro" in Venezuela), the bolivar has suffered from chronic instability, distrust and declining value.
According to the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999 , the bank is a politically independent legal entity that acts autonomously. In fact, independence was increasingly restricted during the tenure of Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro in order to be able to create unlimited money for social programs with the help of the central bank. This policy triggered hyperinflation in the country from around 2017 . The bank, which is subject to strict control by the executive branch of the Venezuelan government, also stopped publishing key figures such as the consumer price index and gross domestic product from 2017 .
On August 20, 2018, a currency reform was carried out due to the currency devaluation. The old bolívar fuerte was exchanged for the bolívar soberano at a ratio of 100,000 to 1, thus removing five zeros from the currency.
In April 2019, the United States imposed sanctions on the Banco Central de Venezuela in order to "prevent it from being used as an instrument of the illegitimate Maduro regime" , according to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Venezuela Foreign Exchange Reserves . tradingeconomics.com Accessed November 24, 2019 (English)
- ↑ Reseña Histórica | Banco Central de Venezuela. Retrieved December 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Economic crisis in Venezuela - New currency reform comes into force. Accessed December 17, 2019 (German).
- ^ Treasury Sanctions Central Bank of Venezuela and Director of the Central Bank of Venezuela | US Department of the Treasury. Retrieved December 17, 2019 .