Venezuela is poised to launch a new currency that will lop five zeroes off the old one as President Nicolas Maduro tries to get to grips with the country’s spiraling economic crisis. Banks across the country closed on Monday ahead of the launch of the ‘sovereign bolivar’, which will be issued on Tuesday, AP reported. Maduro also plans to raise minimum wage by 3,000% and raise petrol prices, which are currently the cheapest in the world, in line with other countries to tackle smuggling. However, economists have warned the measures amount to little more than a face-lift and do nothing to tackle the underlying problems that have crippled the country’s economy. Chief among those problems is plunging oil production, which formed the bedrock of the economy and is now at its lowest level since 1947. Opposition leaders have called for a nationwide strike and protest on Tuesday amid renewed fury at Maduro and his ruling socialist party. Mass demonstrations have not taken place in Venezuela for the best part of a year after they were banned by the government.
