Another update from the The Curmudgeon's Corner
Feb 2009
BY SCOTT BOSWELL - As to Margarita things have changed since the last referendum in Dec 2008. This time Chavez won the right to be re-elected over & over. Next due to Chavez, inflation is really very high 20 to 30% per year. Many things are still cheap such as ten cent a gallon gas &, diesel, utilities, food staples like milk, chicken, some meats, sugar, because there prices are frozen by the government. Imported things are expensive by Latin American standards. Some cost more than in the states others are equal to the states or Canada and many are still less expensive. Margarita is still one of the cheapest places to live in the Caribbean but not nearly as inexpensive as it was 4-5 years back. However nothing in the U.S. or most of the 1st world is the same price as it was back then with the possible exception of some electronic gadgets. If you have dollars or euros things are still reasonable due to the "unofficial exchange rate" or what some call the black market rate
and I have heard this jokingly referred to "the official black market rate". Presently you get between 5 and 5.5 Bolivars (Bs) to 1 USD. The official exchange rate is 2.15 Bs to 1USD. However no one except the banks and official exchange houses actually uses the official exchange rate. So if an item cost 100 Bs a couple of years back now it might cost 140 Bs but a couple of years back you could only exchange dollars for about 3 to 3.5 Bs per 1 USD. This helps any person with dollars but does hurt the locals due to the inflation. There is speculation that the value of the Bolivar will continue to fall due to low oil prices and the fact that Chavez had blown billions of oil money on ridiculous projects in other countries that have produced no returns.
With Chavez in power indefinitely I have no idea what will happen to the economy and it seems no one else does either. Margarita was one of the states that voted against Chavez. Plus Margarita is actually the state of Neuva Esparta and they don't pay a lot of attention to the politics of the rest of Venezuela. The economy is basically based on tourism and fishing. On Margarita they are still building apartments like crazy. This has slowed down a little because at times it is difficult to get building materials in a timely manner. Everything has to be imported from the mainland or other Latin countries like Colombia. Venezuela has very little industry besides oil. They do manufacture a few makes of cars and have some other manufacturing plants but not nearly enough to be self sufficient. All in all comparing Margarita to the other Caribbean islands Margarita is still the best value in the Caribbean.
Contact Scott at discovermargaritaisland@yahoo.com Check out his site. Very informative and entertaining www.retirecaribbean.com
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